A Friend in Need
by AfroThunda
Summary: Jaune Arc's life was as normal as the next guy's. He attended college, he had a job, and he had friends like any other boy his age, but all of that changed when he took in an injured black cat.
1. Chapter 1

**The summary says it all folks, so enjoy and happy fourth guys!**

"Get her you idiots! She's got the package!" Roman screamed at his henchman as he fired his cane repeatedly at the thieving nuisance.

This was by far, the **worst** mission Blake has ever done in her entire freaking life.

This was the dominant thought in her mind as she leaped from rooftop to rooftop, dodging Roman's screaming projectiles Roman was firing and clutching the black bag in her arms. She could feel the bullets zip by as they failed to hit their target. She tried her absolute best to shake the criminals off of her tail, but every attempt to lose the murderous thugs was met with failure. Every time she sped into the darkness of an alley way and every time she slid into a vacant house to seek hidden refuge, the thugs were always there to cut her off, firing guns and swinging blades at her.

In her line of work, she was famously revered for her ability to disappear without the leaving the tiniest trace, but those famous talents of hers were proving to be useless in this situation. The sting of the bullet wounds in her side was a screaming reminder of this.

Desperately searching for a way to evade her pursuers, she noticed a large gap separated by two parallel roads. There was no way the thugs possessed the ability to jump that far, so if she could jump across, she could finally escape the suited men chasing her. As soon as she landed, she would find the closest and most efficient hiding spot, hide the cargo she was assigned to retrieve, and focus all of her attention to escaping.

Normally, she wouldn't take the risk of losing a package she was assigned to collect, but if this continued, Blake wouldn't even be able stay alive long enough to drop it off. She would just have to come back for it later.

"_Whatever is in this package better be worth it, or the Council is going to get it." _Blake angrily thought as she increased her momentum in hopes of making the jump.

Summoning every last ounce of her strength, she gritted her teeth, planted her feet on the edge of the building, and launched herself across the gap as far as she could.

Skidding to a screeching halt, Roman dug his feet into the ground before he sent himself careening off of the rooftop.

"Damn it!"Roman growled as he glared at the back of his target. The bitch still had his merchandise and was about to get away with it. There was no way he or any of his men could pursue her, for they didn't possess the unnatural athletics of a Faunus. There was only one way he could hope to retrieve his objective. He may damage the merchandise, but he would be damned before he lets a filthy animal like her do him over one.

With malice in his eyes, he raised his cane and aimed carefully at the black figure in the distance. He would only have one shot at this.

"_Now!"_

Satisfied with his aim, he pulled the trigger, firing a screeching red firework at the girl in the middle of her leap.

Blake could hear the obnoxiously loud projectile flying at her, but there was nothing she could do. She was completely vulnerable, for no matter how agile she was she couldn't change direction while in the air.

This was going to hurt…a lot.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" she screamed as she was engulfed by the scalding explosion and was sent flying further off course. She anticipated the pain of being shot, but she did not anticipate the edge of the roof grazing her stretched fingers as they slipped from her reach.

Screaming in horror, she flailed and spun in the air trying to grab anything that could save her from the impending collision with the ground. Unfortunately for her, there was nothing to break her fall.

Except for the dumpster that she landed on and dislocated her arm against.

As she lied face down on the dirty ground with burns littering her pale skin, she was focusing heavily on the conundrum racking her brain instead of paying attention to the agonizing pain she was in. She couldn't decide who she hated more at the moment.

The Council for sending her on this mission.

Adam for recommending her for the mission.

Or the first person who said that cats always land on their feet.

But she had no time to find out, nor did she have time to lick her aching wounds. She was pretty sure that the bastards were rushing towards her location, and if they found her in her terrible condition, she would have a lot more to worry about then a broken arm and a few burns.

Raising her head slowly, she shot her eyes in every direction in a panic, scanning for any and every potential hiding spot. Once again, her luck soured as the only hiding spot was in the dumpster that broke her fall and her arm, and even if she hid in it, she wasn't small enough to completely conceal herself.

The only way she could possibly fit in there would be to…

Oh no…

Hell to the no!

She promised herself multiple times she would **never **transform again. As a Faunus, it was degrading on a monumental level and she abhorred even possessing the damned ability, and not only was it humiliating on a personal level, it was also on a physical level. Despite how useful transforming was when she needed to blend in, she needed to abandon almost all of her clothes whenever she did, adding further insult to injury. (Literally in this case)

For her to even consider doing this, she would have to exhaust absolutely EVERY other option.

"I think she landed somewhere over here!" a thug shouted from the distance.

Well… crap…her options just ran out. Well, at least Yang wouldn't be around to annoy her with her constant cat puns.

Bracing her for the appalling smells her poor nose was about to be subjected to, she crawled back towards the rusty dumpster that was the nesting ground for a colony of flies.

It was official; she hated all three of them evenly right now.

Roman was not a happy man. Tonight was supposed short and sweet so that he could return to his quarters and spend the Friday night relaxing with a cigar and a drink, but of course someone from the White Fang had to complicate things for him. The woman had better hope that his shot had killed her, because if he found the contents of his package damaged, she would be begging for death after he was done with her.

"I think she landed somewhere over here!" one of his henchman shouted from ahead.

Good. If he hurried, he would be able to get back before his wine got warm.

Readying his cane to finish the thief off, he followed his henchman into the dark alley way as they marched towards their prey, but they were confused by the abnormal sight before them. Lying on the ground abandoned in the middle of the alleyway was the annoying thief's clothes, torn all over and smoking from the recent explosion. Was she really running around in the dark of night stark naked?

And was one of his henchmen seriously playing with the missing girl's panties?

Bringing his cane up to punish his underling for his utter lack of class, he smacked the back of his head, sending his hat flying off while screaming, "PUT THAT DOWN!"

"Yes sir!" he yelped in pain as he dropped Blake's unmentionables while rubbing the pulsating pain on his head.

Roman would have continued to reprimand the fool, but his concentration was torn away from him as his eyes caught sight of the garbage dumpster next the pile of clothes.

"_I wonder…"_

"You, search the dump." He commanded as he pointed towards the perverted henchman.

Desiring not to anger his boss any further, he moved quickly towards the garbage ready to get his hands dirty.

After two minutes of swallowing his need to hurl his dinner, he halted his efforts as he saw the "diamond in the rough".

"Sir, I found it!" he shouted excitedly as he ripped the grease stained package out, handing it towards Roman.

Backing away from his smelly peon, he said, "Good job, now stay at least ten feet away from me and carry the package."

"Sir, what about the Faunus?" another henchman said as he sheathed his combat knife.

"It doesn't matter. We have what we want, and if we just so happen to find her, we'll finish her."

Hoping to avoid any more interruptions, Roman signaled his thugs to follow him as they walked through the hallways.

If he had stayed a few more minutes, he probably would have heard the quiet, but painful, mewls coming from deep in the dumpster.

Work today was absolute hell!

Usually, the pizza place was always busy on a Friday night, but today was especially busy because of the all-you-can-eat buffet. Due to the overwhelming amount of people, Jaune and his two friends, Lie Ren and Nora Valkyrie, were forced to work unpaid overtime by their asshole boss. It was bad enough that they had to work three more hours with no pay, but it was even worse when there were only three people to do all of the strenuous work involved.

Sometimes he wondered why he kept this job. He didn't absolutely need it, his house was paid for by his adopted mother, his adopted father was the headmaster of the college he attended so tuition was taken care of, and he could always find another job to pay for his groceries.

The only reason he didn't quit was that his two closest friends were there to make it worthwhile. Whenever he needed personal guidance from someone he could confide in without concerns for judgment, he would consult Ren, for he was perhaps the wisest seventeen-year old in Vytal. As for Nora…well…she was always good for a laugh. Sure, she was an insane menace to society, but she was always good for a laugh.

Oh well, maybe a nice shower and warm cup of tea would clear his mind. He wanted to relax before he went back to class Monday.

As he walked through the streets, brushing past many people quickly so that he could get home faster, he was interrupted by the subtle sound of whimpering coming from the ally way to his right.

Now there were many rules that one should follow if they wanted to live a healthy life in a city like Vytal, and one of the rules that was high on the list was, "Never go into a dark alley way, especially at night.", but Jaune could tell that whatever was whimpering was in pain, and that alone was reason enough to convince him to temporarily abandon the golden rule.

Steeling himself and shivering in fright, Jaune cautiously tiptoed into the intimidating darkness of the alley.

"_Oh man, this is a huge mistake! I'm gonna get mugged and die! My parents are going to be devastated when they find out that I died for being stupid. They won't be surprised, but they'll be devastated!"_

As Jaune progressed further into the death trap, he slowly began to pinpoint where the source of the small whimpers. To his surprise, the sounds were coming from a garbage dump.

"_Ok…here it goes." _He thought as he slowly looked over the side of the dumpster, ready to retreat if anything jumped out to attack him.

But as soon as he saw what was in pain, he abandoned any thoughts of running.

"_Oh no…"_

Curled up in a shivering bundle, coated in dried blood that was leaking from its rib, was an injured and moaning black cat. It was breathing heavily with raspy breaths and favoring its right side, which indicated that its left arm was broken, and he could tell from the singed fur on its spine that it had been burnt recently. But what disturbed Jaune the most was the fact that the blood leaving its body was due to bullet wounds in its left rib, and this disgusted him deeply that someone would shoot a defenseless animal like this.

Feeling immense pity for the poor animal, he racked his brain for any solutions. The feline was in dire need of medical attention, but the vetenarian's office was closed for repairs. He would tend to the animal himself, but he wasn't sure if it would allow him to carry it to safety in its injured state. He didn't know what he was going to do, but he needed to figure it out fast before the animal caught an infection.

"Uuumm…hello?" Jaune greeted questioningly, testing whether or not the poor creature was even conscious.

He received no response. The cat just continued to pant and wheeze.

"_Well, I guess as long as its asleep it won't mind."_

He didn't care that it smelled like week old cabbage, and he didn't care that he was likely to be clawed and scratched to hell and back. His kind nature simply wouldn't allow him to abandon the poor thing.

"_I guess that shower's going to have to wait."_

Blake was by no means a morning person.

Whenever her sleep was disturbed and she was forcibly ripped from her pleasant dreams of a better time, she would wake up ready to destroy the one responsible. But as she sluggishly woke up, her mind slowly began to register the aching pain radiating from her injuries from last night. So Blake was woke up against her will and she was in pain; a **dangerous **combination.

"_Ooooowwwww…I haven't felt this crappy since the morning after Yang's last birthday party."_

As her eyes slowly fluttered open from the morning sun's rays peaking through the windows, she noticed the clean and inviting bedroom she was in. It was filled with possessions that would typically, belong to a teenager, which included a few video game systems, a T.V, a computer, posters of famous animes, and to Blake's great delight, a large rack of books. She also noticed the large and soft, king-sized bed she was comfortably lying against. The sheets were recently cleaned, as if to intentionally add to Blake's comfort.

"_What happened last night? What am I doing here? I remember getting shot…and then the garbage dump…and then…"_

Recalling her last memory before the pains of her injuries sent her into unconsciousness, she slowly brought her "hands" to her face, only to be met with the sight of furry black cat paws.

"_Oh yeah, this." _Blake thought disdainfully.

As she inspected the results the transformation had on her body, she was more interested in the evidence of someone's great care for her condition. Bandages were firmly, but gently, wrapped around her ribs where she was shot. Her injuries and burns were cleaned, her fur was shiny and lustrous from a fairly recent bath, and she tasted the familiar after-taste of pain killers. She was also interested in the fact that her left arm was no longer dislocated. It was safe to assume that whoever gave her all of this generous medical attention was also the owner of this clean and homey room, for it smelled identical to the subtle scent of a human left on her bandages.

As Blake observed her surroundings, her attention was diverted to the sound of the door opening. A blond boy who appeared to be around her age walked through the door carrying two bowls in one arm. To Blake's great amusement, the boy was wearing a blue onesy as pajamas, leading Blake to infer that it was morning.

Noticing the tiny black creature observe his every move with her large and hypnotizing gold eyes, Jaune slowed his movements down, as not to alarm her, and spoke to Blake in a gentle and collected voice.

"Hey there . Are you feewing better this morning?" He cooed at her in a voice usually reserved for babies.

"If you keep speaking to me like I'm a child, I will bitch-slap you with my claws." She growled in reply, but due to her feline form, the only sounds that escaped her fuzzy lips were angry "meows" and hisses.

The nerve of this boy! Talking to her like she's his house cat! Although she was grateful for the care she received from him, she refused to be treated like a pet!

Flinching from the menacing growls from the cat, he quickly replied while placing the bowls on the bed next to her, "Okay, if you don't like the voice I'll stop. Are you hungry?"

Suddenly out of nowhere, Blake zipped off her spot and pounced the bowl on her right.

"You got me tuna! I LOVE YOU!" she uncharacteristically squealed in delight. If he gave her tuna for breakfast every morning, he could talk to her anyway he wanted!

"I'll take that as a "yes"." Jaune chuckled as he collected clothes from his dresser. "Oh yeah, I think this belongs to you."

Instantly seizing Blake's attention, Jaune pulled a tiny black strip of clothe out of his dresser. It was the only article of clothing that managed to stay attached to her when she transformed.

"My bow?" she meowed as she felt her neck for it, only for her paws to feel bare fur.

Hearing the high pitched meowing from the cat; he could tell that she recognized the soft strip in his hands. After putting his cloths aside on the bed, he pulled on the bow to read the tiny golden writing neatly sewn into it.

"Blake; that's a nice name." he said as he slowly approached the cat and started to gently tie the bow around her neck, making sure that it didn't inhibit her ability to breathe. After he finished his delicate work, he raised his right hand and gently stroked her left ear, eliciting soft purrs from her in the process.

"Woooooooowwwww, you have magic hands my friend!" she purred lovingly, greatly enjoying what Jaune was doing to her. Usually she wouldn't let anyone touch her precious appendages, but she just couldn't resist the soothing and relaxing sensation of Jaune's fingers dancing across the back of her ears.

"Well, if you're wearing a bow with your name on it, then you obviously belong to someone. We'll find your owner soon, so don't worry." Jaune smiled as he retracted his hand. After collecting his clothes from the bed, he left his room for a relaxing morning shower.

"l'll be right back, so you just rest for now." He said as he closed the door behind him.

After Jaune left and she washed down her tuna with the water in the other bowl, Blake slowly limped back to her spot on the fluffy pillows.

As she snuggled back into the warmth the pillow collected from her body, she began to consider her next move. The Council would want to know that she had failed her mission, news that Blake was not looking forward to delivering, but in her current condition she wouldn't be able to make it out of the window without collapsing. Her scroll no doubt was destroyed by the explosion that scorched her last night, so there was no way to contact them, or any of her friends, from a distance. With no other choice, Blake simply resigned to the fact that she was going to be staying with the weird, but pleasantly hospitable, boy for a while, at least until her injuries heal and she's fully mobile again. However, she would have to make absolutely sure that he continued to think that she was just some lost cat he rescued, for she didn't want him involved in the dangers of her daily life.

"_Oh well, at least the boy will keep me entertained during my stay." _Blake thought as she resumed her refreshing slumber.

But what neither Blake nor Jaune knew at the time was from that moment on; both of their lives were to become much more entertaining, and **much **more chaotic.

**Any questions, comments, or concerns? You know what to do! :-)**


	2. Chapter 2

**Wow…just…wow.**

**You guys completely blew my mind when I saw how many people like this. All I have to say in response to that is "Thanks!"**

"_Oh Blake, you're such a sweetheart."_

"_Thank you Mommy." She squeaked cutely from her mother's lap as her mother lovingly caressed her head. _

_Most people find the comfort of a warm bed with a fluffy pillow the most appealing place to fall asleep, but to Blake no bed in the world could compare to the soothing warmth of her mother's lap, and no pillow could lull her to sleep more easily than her mother's fingers brushing against her ears._

_Before she allowed herself to fall into a blissful slumber, Blake looked up to her mother and innocently asked her, "Mommy, what's an abomination?"_

_As soon as she finished her question, she immediately regretted it as her mother's hand froze and ceased her petting._

"_Where did you hear that word Blake?"_

_Confused by the pain in her mother's voice, she simply replied, "One of the teachers at school whispered it after I left the classroom. What does it mean?"_

_But before she could receive an answer, her face was instantly met with her mother's chest as she was embraced into a heartfelt hug. She would have asked what was wrong, but she was afraid to ask any more questions. The subtle, but violent, compressions of her mother's chest and the wetness traveling down Blake's back was a clear indication that she had unintentionally upset her with her questions._

_Did she do something wrong?_

As Blake's consciousness returned to her, her mind slowly receded from her reminiscent dreams of a better time, before she became fully aware of the harsh and unforgiving circumstances of the life as a Faunus.

"_Those were the days…" _she depressively thought as she yawned and stretched.

As she stretched her exhausted limbs, she was completely yanked back into the world of consciousness as her injuries were unintentionally stretched and flared with instant pain. Momentarily startled by the injuries and the unfamiliar surroundings, she once again recalled the events of last night and also her brief meeting with her goofy savior. Speaking of which, she really needed to find out what his name was, she didn't want to keep referring to him by various nicknames. He wasn't in the room with her, so unfortunately she was going to have to grit her teeth, bear the pain, and begin to get used to walking on four legs again if she wanted to see him.

Grunting in pain, Blake sluggishly rose from her spot on the bed and practiced walking by marching in circles on the bed before she attempted to leap off of it. It took about ten minutes, but she was able to grasp the basics efficiently. There was no way that she would be able to run without extra practice, even if her injuries didn't inhibit her ability to do so, but her current progress would have to suffice.

After painfully jumping from the bed to the floor with grace only a feline could achieve, she put her new walking skills to use as she strode through the open door. For a house that was seemingly inhabited by one lone teenage boy, it was surprisingly big. As she walked through the hallways, she counted at least three rooms and when she reached the end of it and saw stairs leading down towards the floor Jaune was on. Despite seeming like a quiet and meek boy, his voice carried throughout the house clearly.

Or maybe she could chalk it up to her enhanced hearing, one of the few benefits of being a Faunus.

"Look, I know you and Nora are tired, but I really need you to come over. It's important." He said as he spoke to his scroll.

As Blake observed her temporary caretaker from atop the stairs as he sat on his couch with his new clothes on, she pondered what could be so important as to disturb his tired friends. More than likely she was the reason, but didn't want to assume.

"_**What could require my immediate attention so much that you would disturb our anniversary to call me about it? Need I remind you how Nora pranked you the last time you interrupted our private time?" **_a boy asked as his voice reverberated through the scroll.

Shuddering from the chilling memories of his toilet paper coated in itching powder, he shakily replied, "I k-know, and you know I wouldn't dare call if I didn't really need your help."

Chuckling at her new friend's previous misfortune, she decided that they had more in common then she originally thought. This "Nora" reminded her a lot of Yang, as Blake was the target of her blonde companion's mischievous pranks just as he was to Nora's.

After sighing in resignation to his friend's request, the voice replied, _**"We'll be there in fifteen minutes."**_

"Thanks Ren, you're a real pal! Oh yeah, and could you please bring your first-aid kit?"

"_**Sure thing Jaune." **_He flatly replied before hanging up.

So that was his name. Frankly, Blake was expecting a more average and typical name from him, but the name "Jaune" sounded like a name given to heroes in folklore and fairy-tales. Maybe she was just jealous that his parents were more creative then hers when it came to names, for she always found her name to be plain and colorless, even if she felt it was a fitting reflection of her personality and fashion sense.

"_I wonder what his last name is?" _she thought as she carefully walked down the stairs.

Noticing the tiny black figure descending the stairs to his left, he was shocked to see his damaged guest up and on her feet.

"Oh, you're awake already? You didn't really stay asleep for long." He said as he put his scroll down on the sofa and walked towards her.

Curious to see how much time had passed since she first woke up, she glanced at the clock hung on the wall, and true to Jaune's word she was only asleep for an hour.

"_Did she just look at the clock?" _he thought as he also glanced in the direction Blake did, but ignored the impossible idea that a cat could tell time.

As he gently picked up the feline, taking great care not to irritate her wounds, he carefully sat back down on the couch.

"So, do you feel any better?" he asked as he tenderly pet her back.

"Do you really expect an answer from someone that can't speak human tongue?" she replied through a series of annoyed "meows".

"I'll take that as a "Yes"." He happily replied as he continued to stroke her back.

So this was what she was going to be subjected to during her stay? These weird and immensely awkward one-sided conversations that owners had with their pets? If this was true, he may as well have named her "Garfield".

Oh well, it's not as if she had much to say to him anyway. The only people she really engaged in full conversations with were Adam, Yang, and Sun because she had known them for most of her life.

As time passed, Jaune was keeping himself occupied as he caressed Blake by watching T.V. Usually he would spend his Saturday mornings playing his Xbox with his friends online, but he didn't want to disturb the tranquil creature in his lap with the sounds of people angrily screaming and gunfire. Besides, he had always wanted to have a pet when he was a kid, but due to unfortunate circumstances he'd rather not recall, he was never gifted with the experience. But now he had the opportunity to care for a pet like he always wanted, even if he would eventually have to return her to her rightful owner.

Simply choosing to enjoy the feel of soft and slick fur brushing against the palm of his left hand, he became content with just watching T.V, but Blake was not settling in to this new experience as easily as he was.

It had been many years since she allowed anyone to constantly touch her like Jaune had been doing for the past ten minutes. Recently the closest thing she has to physical contact is the occasional noogie from Yang and a pat on the back from Sun, but to have her head stroked tenderly for so long brought back many memories she would rather leave buried. Not to say that she didn't enjoy it, it was so relaxing that she caught herself dosing off a few times, but as he pet her lovingly, her mind was constantly assaulted with images of her mother's face.

As Jaune continued to massage the purring kitty that was nuzzled into his lap, he was interrupted by the sound of knocking coming from his front door.

"Coming!" he shouted as he gently placed the startled and fully alert cat on the couch cushion to his left.

As Jaune opened the door, he was greeted by the sight of an indifferent Lie Ren carrying a white case with a red cross on it, and, to Jaune's great discomfort, a very annoyed Nora Valkyrie.

"Uuuhhh, hey guys! Glad you could make it!" he greeted as he embarrassingly rubbed the back of his head, chuckling nervously as he knew he was in trouble.

After giving Jaune a huff of frustration, Nora crossed her arms disapprovingly and said, "Y'know Jaune, just because _you're _a virgin doesn't mean you have to ruin _my _fun!"

"Say what?! You guys were...eeewww!"

Well, that explains why Ren kept the screen covered during their call…

"Was there a reason that you called me here?" Ren asked as he kept his left arm at the ready to hold Nora back should she attack the blushing blonde.

"Yeah, come in." He said as he made way for the contradicting couple.

After stepping into warm and inviting abode of their blonde friend, the two instantly took notice of the bandaged black cat staring heavily at them with its golden gaze.

Ren had a great amount of experience with animals of all types due to the many times he helped his uncle with his job as a vetenarian, and one of the first things one should never do around timid animals like cats is never make any sudden movements or loud noises.

Too bad Nora lacked the self-control to do either of those.

"OH. MY. GAWD IT'S SO CUUUUUUUTE!" she squealed as she cupped her hands to her cheeks in adoration.

Anticipating that Nora was about glomp the poor thing, Ren shot his hand out to hold her back.

"Nora, please refrain from scaring the cat." he requested/ordered calmly.

"But Reeeeeeennnn…"

"It's injured. If you hug it, you're going to hurt it." He reasoned as he slowly retracted his arm.

After calming down Nora to ensure that she wouldn't unintentionally hurt the cat, he slowly stepped towards the creature, whispering soothing things to her to keep from startling her.

"I didn't know you had a cat, Jaune." Ren said as he inched closer to Blake.

"I don't. I just found her last night in a dumpster after we left work. I couldn't just leave her in there bleeding the way she was."

Appalled by Jaune's story, Nora shot her head towards him with a shocked gasp. "But who would hurt a little cutie like her?!" She said as she cooed at Blake. "What's her name?"

"Blake." Jaune answered plainly as he observed Ren inch closer to his fuzzy guest.

Blake would have reprimanded Nora for cooing at her like Jaune had earlier, but she was completely focused on the green-clad boy. Amused by how cautiously the boy was approaching her, she whispered, **"Yes, that's a good human. Appease your lord and master." **while imitating the voice of the villain from a movie that Yang and Sun forced her to watch with them. What was his name again? _Scourge _or _Blight _or something.

Slightly intimidated by the low and raspy purrs the feline was giving him and surprised that it wasn't the least bit intimidated by him, he sat down next to her and slowly began to unpeel her bandages to fully inspect her wounds. After he finally undid all of the medicinal cloth, he opened his first-aid kit to treat her. Jaune was right to call him, for her wounds were in dire need of care from an experienced individual. Not to say that Jaune didn't do well, her wounds were clean and well taken care of, but he did miss a few spots.

As he did his work, Blake couldn't help but notice the familiar scent seeping from the gentle boy. It was a scent that Blake was well accustomed to.

It was the smell of fur….

"I'm rather surprised that you managed to care for her so efficiently. Cats don't usually let strangers bathe them so thoroughly. Good work." Ren complimented as he tended to the oozing red holes in her side.

Flattered by his praise, he replied embarrassed, "Thanks, but she was unconscious until an hour ago, so it wasn't that hard to bathe her."

"Wait, how does he know I'm a wome-"

As she pieced together Jaune's words concerning her bathe, her face's complexion skyrocketed as she realized the only way he could possibly know her gender.

"_That irredeemable pervert! I feel violated!" _she internally screamed as she shuddered from embarrassment.

Just when she thought she could overlook the humiliation of transforming, Jaune completely ruins her security with a single sentence! She was perfectly capable of bathing herself!

Even though she knew that it was only a matter time before he would find out, but the mere thought of some looking at her "junk" was horrendously appalling, **especially** when she was unconscious.

Noticing the relentless shivering from the horrendously humiliated girl, he politely asked, "Jaune, could you please get me some blankets? Blake seems to be cold."

"Oh yeah, sure." He said as he walked up the stairs fulfill Ren's request.

"_I'M NOT COLD, BUT I WISH I WAS!" _she thought, desperately wishing the heat radiating from her cheeks would dissipate.

Completely infatuated with the shivering bundle of cuteness that Ren was tending to, she shot her right hand up excitedly shouting, "OOH OOH OOH OOH, can I hold her while you work?!"

"_**NO." **_The three teenagers forcefully responded with no-nonsense tones.

Whimpering in hurt dejection, Nora assumed the "fetal position" in the corner of the room to sulk while whining, "Meanies…"

_(Elsewhere)_

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN SHE'S MISSING?!" Yang angrily shouted as she held Adam against the wall of the hallway by his collar and kept her gauntlet aimed at his face.

"Whoa! Calm down Yang!" Sun screamed as he held his furious friend back and detached her hand from Adam.

Yang was angry. No, she was absolutely murderous right now. She begged and begged and **begged **the Council to let her assist Blake on that ill-fated mission, but she was denied the satisfaction because she was already assigned a mission and Blake was already given assistance. Usually she would have just accepted this and would just be happy that Blake wasn't going alone, but she was enraged when she found out that her partner failed to arrive at meeting in time, a mistake that more than likely cost Blake her life.

Everyone knew that sneaking into one of the Order's bases alone was practically a death wish.

"You were supposed to go back her up! How the hell could you let this happen, you son of a bitch?!"

Completely unfazed by her furious shouting and the flames dancing across her golden hair, Adam simply fixed the collar of his suit and coldly responded, "I got there as fast as I could, but I was cut off by some of the Order's henchman. Don't blame me for happenings out of my control."

"But YOU were the one who volunteered her! Aren't you-"

Before she could finish her angry bellow, she was interrupted by the feeling of cold steel against her neck, right where her jugular was.

"Exactly, **I **was the one who had her sent there." he growled from behind Yang and Sun, "**I **was the one who was supposed to provide support, and **I **was the one failed to get there in time. So tell me this, how do you think **I **feel about my friend missing?"

As he questioned the blonde menacingly, Yang could feel his Aura channeling into the blade, increasing its sharpness and heating the blade to dangerous temperatures. If he wanted to, he could end her life easily with the slightest of motions.

"Do not assume that you are the only one concerned for Blake's safety, Xiao Long." He icily whispered in her right ear as he retracted his sword.

After sheathing his weapon and leaving a slight cut on her right cheek out of spite, he disappeared in a black blur, leaving a still livid Yang and an intimidated Sun alone in the hallway.

Concerned for his livid friend as her fists viciously shook and her flames slowly retracted back into her body, Sun put a consoling hand on her shoulder in an attempt to calm her down.

Ignoring the stinging burn on his hand, he asked, "Yang, you gonna be okay?"

Gently shaking off her friend's hand, she responded with a curt "No" before angrily marching back to her quarters.

_(Jaune and Blake)_

After Ren spent a half-hour tending to Blake and making conversation with Jaune and Nora finally got to pet a reluctant Blake, the "dynamic duo", as Jaune liked to call them, left Jaune's house to continue with their special day, but not before Nora threatened to tie Jaune's "boys" into a ribbon and put it on Ren's anniversary gift if he made anymore interruptions. Most people would assume this to be an idle threat, but Jaune knew better, so he wouldn't even dream of testing her patience by calling them again.

With his best friends gone and his furry guess nuzzled back into his lap, Jaune kicked back on his sofa to resume watching T.V as he caressed Blake once again. But before he was completely settled back into his spot, he reached into his pocket to grab his scroll. "Hey Blake, look over here." He gently said as he turned on the scroll's camera.

With an indifferent meow, Blake did as he asked and looked at the lens of the scroll, keeping her eyes open and alert in preparation for a possible blinding flash.

After clicking the "Snap" button, the device took the picture of the cat and saved it with all of his other pictures. As he put his scroll down on the cushion to his right, he couldn't help but remember Ren calling her "his cat".

"_Too bad she's not…" _Jaune dejectedly thought with a melancholy sigh.

A part of Jaune didn't want to give Blake up, but it was only right that Jaune at least try to return her, no matter how much he would miss her. After shaking the depressing thoughts out of his head, Jaune simply decided to enjoy Blake while he still could.."You're such a sweetheart." He gently praised as he continued to pet Blake, completely oblivious to the effect his words had on her.

"_Sweet…heart…" _she thought as she bit her lip in a futile attempt to swallow her body's need to express her sorrow, struggling desperately to erase the memories of a time when she would find delight in the nickname.

If Jaune wasn't so focused on the news program, he would have noticed the lone tear trailing down the cat's face as she snuggled further into his lap for familiar comfort.

**So there you go! Questions, comments, or concerns anyone?**


	3. Chapter 3

**Fair warning: there might be a lot of typos in this because I was in a rush to upload this before tomorrow, but I think I fixed them all. Anyway, enjoy the chapter!**

_1…_

_2…_

_3…_

_Inhale…_

_1…_

_2…_

_3…_

_Exhale…_

_1…_

_2…_

_3…_

_Inhale…_

_1…_

_2…_

_3…_

_4…_

_Exhale_

"_Oooh…that one took a second later…" _Blake mentally droned in false amazement.

It was currently 7:28 in the morning, and Blake was lazily curled up on Jaune's chest, passing the time by measuring the intervals between its rise and fall. Normally she would be spending her time doing something productive, but confining herself to her transformation left Blake very little to accomplish.

If her wounds didn't inhibit her ability to move properly, she would've left the house to collect her belongings from the dumpster, but she was healing more slowly than she initially thought. She would've loved to read the contents of Jaune's bookshelf that was placed in the far corner of the room, but her paws wouldn't allow her to turn the pages properly without possibly damaging them. She already explored and memorized most of the house, and she also practiced walking on four legs to the point that she could jog lightly. As long as she was posing as a cat and still healing, there was little else to do to entertain herself, but hopefully she would get a break from her disguise today. It was Sunday and hopefully that meant that Jaune would leave the house to do something. She was almost tempted to transform, steal some of Jaune's clothes, and entertain herself with a book while Jaune was asleep, but she refrained from doing so, for it was far too risky.

God forbid he wakes up and finds a complete stranger walking around his house wearing his hoody. The poor guy would probably have a heart attack.

"_7:30…okay… time to wake up now." _She thought as she carefully stretched and yawned, making sure not to irritate her injuries like yesterday morning.

"Hey Goofy, get up. Don't you have errands to run or something?" she meowed as she lightly pawed at his forehead.

Her only reply was a perverted giggle from her new friend.

"Aaah my sweet Princess, I knew you would come around eventually." He giggled through a blushing smile.

For some reason, she didn't like how he was blushing as he dreamed about this so called "Princess".

"Can you have your weird fantasies another time?" she asked annoyed as she continued to try to wake him up.

After spending a full minute relentlessly tapping his face, Jaune finally showed signs of consciousness as his eyes slowly peeled open. With a long, raspy yawn he slowly rose from his pillow and rubbed the crust from his eyes.

"What's wrong Blake? Do you need to go outside?" he moaned as he faced the cat on his lap.

"No thanks, I just wait until your asleep to go to the bathroom." She answered as she hopped off his lap and onto the floor.

With another drowsy yawn, Jaune sluggishly swung his legs off of the comfort of his bed and firmly planted them on the floor. With a heavy grunt of effort, he stood up from his bed and stretched his limbs.

"Shower time." He groaned as he lethargically walked out of his room, resembling the zombies in that show that Blake had seen Sun watching when he was bored.

"And here I thought that you were a morning person, considering your sunny disposition." Blake jokingly commented as she followed her drowsy companion out of the room, mentally restraining herself from snickering at his choice of pajamas.

Thought she had to admit, the blue onesy _was _adorable in a dorky way.

"_Well, I guess as long as he's occupied, I might as well watch the news." _She thought as she separated from Jaune and carefully descended the stairs.

After locating the remote and comfortably seating herself on the couch, she pressed the power button on the remote, making sure to keep it close to her paw to turn the T.V off when she heard the shower upstairs stop running. If Jaune saw that "his" cat turned on the T.V, it would certainly complicate matters.

"_**In other news, an equal rights speech by civil rights leader Martin Maroon was prematurely ended as a group of armed men in black suites arrived and fired rounds at the stage in an attempt to kill Mr. Maroon. Luckily, the local police intervened and drove off the armed men before they could kill Mr. Maroon, unfortunately they managed to injure one of Maroon's bodyguards and at least six civilians."**_

"_Oh no…" _Blake woefully thought as she watched the news report.

Martin Mahogany Maroon was a devout and well-respected politician that was currently campaigning for the position of Mayor of Vytal. He was a kind and generous individual that was always doing whatever he could to help others and better the community. He was truly a great man, but to Blake he was more than just a revered politician, he was a ray of light that illuminated the darkness that had consumed society.

Maroon was undeniably a likeable and charismatic individual, but the most outstanding quality of his character that attracted the attention of the people was his desire to once and for all end the prejudice and discriminative treatment of the Faunus. His entire purpose and desire to become mayor was to further progress the completion of his dream; a society in which Faunus and Humanity could co-exist on equal terms and in absolute harmony. This greatly improved his public image in the eyes of not only his Faunus supporters, but also in the eyes of humans as well. Despite being a minority, there were still large numbers of humans and Faunus alike that shared Maroon's dream in the complete unification of the two races and an end to the conflict between them, and gladly supported him in his endeavors to achieve it.

Unfortunately, Maroon was a man that attracted both positive and negative attention from the community. This was evident in the recent attack currently on the news. There was also an enormous amount of people that wished for nothing more than the complete separation of Humanity and Faunus. Hell, in the more extreme cases, there were even people who pushed for the complete extermination of the other race, and if there was anyone who would be the first to put an end to their attempts, it was Maroon. This made him a target to extremist groups all over Vytal.

"_**Unfortunately, the police were unable to identify the attackers. All we know about them is that all five men wore black suites, hats, and adorned crimson red sunglasses. Here is an artist's rendering."**_

"Oh crap!" Blake shouted as she looked at the picture the T.V was currently displaying.

Skillfully drawn with markers and colored pencils was a clear picture of the described thugs, and they were people that Blake were well acquainted with.

They were dressed **exactly like **the men that pursued her last night.

They were part of the Order.

_**Law enforcement has requested that if any individual has any information concerning the whereabouts of the thugs, please call the number on the bottom-right corner of the screen. This has been Lisa Lavender with Vytal News."**_

It wasn't a shocking surprise that the Order wanted Maroon dead, for he was a compelling individual with power that stood for everything the Order opposed. Blake was sure that the occasional assassination attempt was something that Maroon was well prepared for, being a very popular politician, but usually he would only have to deal with untrained and undisciplined gang members with pistols and pocket knives.

The Order was anything but untrained or undisciplined. They were an enormous, secret and well hidden, dangerous organization full of well-trained and heavily armed humans. If they were planning to kill Maroon, then he was in grave danger.

Hopefully the Council saw the news and was taking immediate action to protect the endangered politician. If the Order managed to murder Maroon, then it would be a crippling blow to the development of harmony between Humanity and Faunus, and that would be a horrendous failure for Blake's organization. She would have liked to make sure that her leaders and friends were aware of the situation, but her scroll was destroyed. She also would have liked to use Jaune's as a substitute, but it was never safe to transfer sensitive information like that on an unsecured line. One could never know when the Order was listening in on a conversation.

As Blake fretted over the danger Maroon was in, she noticed the lack of sound coming from upstairs, which meant that Jaune was finished with his morning shower.

"_I'd better turn the T.V off before he gets out."_

After shutting the T.V off and crawling back up the flight of stairs, her nose was assaulted by a strong, but alluring, aroma as she walked through the hallways.

"_Ooooohhhh…smells like apples…" _she thought as she whiffed the air with her tiny pink nose.

As she stopped in front of the closed door denying her access to Jaune's room, the calming scent that was permeated throughout the hallways smelled twice as strong in front of the door.

"_Must be Jaune's body wash and/or shampoo. I must say, he has good taste." _

"Hey Jaune, let me in." Blake meowed as she pawed at the door, signaling the blonde teenager inside to open the door.

Her command was instantly heeded as the doorknob turned and clicked, but Blake was completely unprepared for the shocking sight before her as the door completely opened.

Standing before her, slightly wet, steaming, and smelling of green apples, was a half naked Jaune whose only article of clothing was a white towel securely wrapped around his waist.

"_Oh…my…god…" _she thought dumbfounded as the wet teen picked her up gingerly and carried her into the room.

"Aw, you poor thing. If you're having a nosebleed, then there must be more wrong with you then I thought. Don't worry, I'll take you to the vet after they're done with repairs." He said as he carefully laid the cat on the pillow of his bed and wiped her nose clean with piece of tissue paper.

"If you don't want me to have nosebleeds, then maybe you should put some damn clothes on, you weirdo." she embarrassedly replied she kept her eye's screwed shut and her head held up to prevent further leakage.

After Jaune got dressed and prepared himself for a day out in the city and Blake recovered from her unexpected loss of blood, the two teens descended the stairs to indulge themselves in their respective breakfasts in the kitchen, a plate full of warm chicken nuggets for Jaune, and, to Blake's great delight, a bowl full of freshly opened tuna for Blake.

As Blake finished her delectable treat, she noticed that her "owner" finished his nuggets and was walking back up the stairs. Leaving her bowl completely vacant of any morsel of food, she quickly, but carefully, followed him back up the stairs, curious as to what her friend was doing. When she entered Jaune's room, she found him rummaging through his closet, grunting in effort as he moved boxes aside and made sure that they didn't fall from the overhead shelf and nail him on the head.

"_What's he looking for?" _Blake pondered as she observed her friend as he dug through boxes.

After spending a full minute searching his closet, he finally ceased as he pulled out a large, dusty, and white box from the very back of the shelf. Carefully, he placed the box at the foot of his bed and took the lid off.

Blake would have expected Jaune to pull out a stack of old magazines or perhaps even an old electronic device that had been obsolete for some time, but she would have never expected the extraordinary treasures that radiated with beauty as it left their cardboard prison and found refuge in Jaune's arms.

Radiating with captivating beauty as it rested in Jaune's embrace was a sheathed sword with a gold gleaming guard and sapphire blue hilt. Blake could only imagine how strikingly beautiful the blade must have been, for the sheathe itself was a wonderfully crafted work of art with its snow-white color and its illuminant luster. In all of Blake's years as an agent, she has seen many different types of weapons, most of them with the ability to shift into a destructive firearm capable of mowing down an entire squadron, but none of them possessed the alluring beauty the simplistic weapon had. As Blake admired Jaune's sword, (Bow Chicka Bow Wow), she not only questioned why a simple civilian like Jaune would possess such a regal looking weapon, but also why Jaune was staring so heavily at it.

Blake wasn't even entirely sure if he was looking at the sword. His gaze seemed so hollow and devoid of focus, as if he was reminiscing intensely.

"Are you okay Jaune?" she asked, knowing full well that he couldn't understand, but simply hoping to grab his attention.

Brought out of his immense daydream by the cat's meow, Jaune snapped out of his daze and looked towards his furry companion as she hopped onto the bed next to the vacant box.

"Oh, sorry about that Blake. Just got distracted by a daydream." He said as he embarrassedly scratched the back of his head.

"More like consumed by it." Blake replied as she once again looked at the source of Jaune's reminiscent behavior.

Noticing how Blake was staring at the sword cradled in his arms, he unsheathed it to expose the sword in all of its glory. "Do ya like it? It's called Crocea Mors and it's been in my family for generations." He informed as he carefully waved and turned it to allow Blake to look at every inch of it.

"_Crocea Mors…Yellow Death? Does everything about him have such glorious names?" _Blake thought as she smiled at the blonde. As Jaune waved his blade around, Blake couldn't help but once again be reminded of the heroes in her books.

"_Blonde hair, blue eyes, majestic sword, all he needs is a shield and a suit of armor and he would be the stereotypical knight in shining armor."_

"Yeah, it's a nice sword, but I try not to display it, so I keep it in my closet. Unfortunately, that means that the blade has probably dul-OOOOWWW SON OF A BITCH NEVERMIND IT'S STILL SHARP!" Jaune shouted in pain as he clenches his fist, trying to stop the bleeding from the deep cut in his palm.

"_On second thought, maybe calling him a knight is a bit too complementary." _Blake thought as she face-pawed in embarrassment.

Looks like Jaune's gonna need to pick up more bandages when he's out.

_(Elsewhere)_

"Come on! Hurry up damn it!" The thug screamed to his four co-workers as he sprinted through alleyways.

"Is she gaining on us?!"

"We're gonna freaking die!" the thug in the back screamed as he broke into a fit of unmanly sobs.

In an attempt to silence the spineless wimp's effeminate wails, the thug in front of him reared his ring hand back and mercilessly backhanded him while screaming, "SILENCE HE-BITCH!"

"What I don't understand is how this chick found us when the entire freaking police force couldn't! We all made sure that no one followed us or saw us on our way to our rendezvous, right?"

"Really? I had to ask directions from someone who looked just like her." The thug said as he rubbed the throbbing handprint on his left cheek.

"YOU FREAKING IDIOT YOU'VE DOOMED US ALL!" The other four shouted at him, using every ounce of self control they had to refrain from murdering the idiotic member of their team.

"Hey guys, we have a problem!" a thug shouted from in front of the group as he dug his feet into the ground to stop sprinting.

Lady Luck did not favor the horrendously unlucky group of criminals. Erected in front of them, as if to mock them for their misdeeds, was the dead end of the alleyway.

"Damn it! Come on men! We have to find another w-"

Before he could finish his suggestion to his teammates, he was interrupted by echoing blast of a shotgun and the instantaneous pain assaulting his chest.

"Crap! She's here!" a thug shouted as he readied his rifle and pointed it towards their attacker as she reloaded from the other end of the alley.

"A word of advice boys: If you're going to try to assassinate a politician, I recommend you don't do it in broad daylight." Yang growled as she readied her shot-gauntlets.

"What the hell is your problem lady?!" The thug in front shouted angrily as he pointed is pistol at the women.

"Wait…I know this chick man. She's the one who wrecked Junior's club last night!" A thug shouted in blatant fear, unintentionally shivering as he attempted to keep a steady aim at the buxom blonde.

"Awesome deduction dingus, now if you don't want to suffer the same ass whooping your other pals in the Order did last night, I **strongly **suggest you make it easy on yourselves, drop your weapons, and answer my questions!" Yang shouted angrily, irritated that not only were these dim-witted dumbasses so hardheaded that they refused to give her answers, they also ruined her day off by trying to kill Maroon.

Understanding what the blonde was capable when she was enraged, the fearful thug in the back lowered his rifle and whispered to his cohorts, "Hey guys, I think we better take her offer. I don't think we stand much of a chan-"

"FIRE!" the thug in front screamed as he fired his pistol, instigating the last two thugs to unload their rifles at the brawler.

The foolish bastards didn't even make a dent on her.

Displaying skills that both impressed and shocked her attackers, Yang utilized her speed and mental aptitude to block every bullet fired with her gauntlets. As soon as their clips were emptied and their guns fired nothing but the rapid sound of hollow clicks, Yang blasted forward in a fiery streak and slammed her fist into the face of the thug in front of the group, sending him sailing into the thug in the back. The other two thugs who fired at her immediately dropped their rifles and yanked out their large red blades in an attempt to slice her, but before their blades could even nick her, Yang deflected them both and fired shotgun rounds into both of their chests, sending them both into the ground motionless.

After making sure that the four thugs were down for the count, she stomped angrily towards the last thug who was sobbing uncontrollably as he backed up against the brick wall.

"Please don't kill me I don't wanna die a virgin!" he pleaded as he got on his knees and begged for his life.

"SHUT UP!" Yang shouted as she back handed him, silencing his wails of terror.

"_Why is it always the face?!"_ the criminal thought as he held his hand against the second handprint on his cheek.

"These are **concussive **rounds dumbass! They're supposed to knock you on your ass, not kill you! Do you see them lying in pools of blood?! I may hate your kind, but I won't become you." Yang growled as she grabbed him by his collar and held him against the wall menacingly.

As the grunt looked behind the vicious beast that was ready to pummel him, they were indeed alive, just unconscious and moaning in pain.

"Now you're gonna tell me **exactly **what I wanna know, or I'll repeatedly hit you in the jewels until you turn into a woman! Got it?!" Yang threatened as she cocked her left gauntlet in an intimidating fashion.

"Yes sir!" he whimpered as the memories of what she did to Junior's groin came to him.

"Good. Now I'm looking for a friend of mine. I'm looking for a woman around my age. She has black hair, golden eyes, and is always wearing a black bow on top of her head. She had a run-in with you guys last night and I haven't seen or heard from her since. Where is she?!"

"Uuuhhh…I don't know?" he hesitantly replied, desperately hoping that she would believe him.

She did not.

_***THWACK* *THWACK* *THAWCK***_

"AAAAAAHHHHAHAHAHOOOOOOOWWWWW!" the criminal screamed as he grabbed his abused groin.

"_**DO NOT LIE TO ME!" **_Yang roared as she spontaneously combusted into angry red flames, further intimidating the poor man.

"I'm not I'm not! The boss chased her into town after she stole something the higher ups excavated from a dig site! All he found was her clothes next to a dumpster in an alleyway! That's all I know I swear!" he screamed, terrified that the merciless beast was going to inflict upon him more damage to his "precious".

After taking a few moments to calm herself, she slowly lowered her fist, taking long and deep breathes as she slowly processed the information given to her. If what he said was true, then Yang could take comfort in the high probability that Blake was still alive, or at least she was when she escaped the pursuit of her enemies. Blake would never simply abandon her clothes unless she transformed. However, Yang was well aware of the fact that Blake despised her unique "gift". If Blake had transformed, then it was under excruciating circumstances, so she was also most likely incapacitated, but it didn't explain why she hadn't returned to HQ yet, or why the Council hadn't heard from her.

As Yang was contemplating the disappearance of her best friend, she was completely unaware of the thug rising up from the ground as he clutched his bruised chest. After shaking off the aching pain of his beating, he pulled a pistol out of his suit and carefully aimed at the back of Yang's head, ready to kill her for her out of spite for attacking him.

"_Headshot." _He thought as he grinned in the pleasing thought of ending this woman's meddling for good.

_***BANG***_

Completely startled and taken off guard by the alarming sound of a gunshot, Yang dropped her prisoner and spun around, ready to beat the living hell out of whatever fired at her.

Any sense of violent intent was completely abandoned as she saw the freshly unconscious thug on the ground with a readied pistol in his hands, and the figure at the end of the ally way holding a sniper rifle with a smoking barrel towards him. Yang didn't need twenty-twenty vision to tell who the person who just saved her life was.

She would recognize that prominent red hood anywhere.

"Ruby?!" Yang shouted in disbelief.

"Hi Yang!" she shouted happily as she holstered the sniper rifle on her back and waved as she walked towards her astonished sister.

"Ruby, what are you doing here?!" she asked the hooded girl.

"I could ask you the same thing! I was attending Maroon's speech and listening from the top of a building. The next thing I know, I see these weird "Men in Black" rejects at the back of the crowd pull guns out of their suites and aim at him. After I sped past Maroon and threw a body guard into him to knock them down to the floor so they wouldn't get shot, I blended in with the crowd to make sure that nobody died and to make sure nobody saw me. After I did that, I track them down here and I see you about to get shot in the head by this creep." She answered as she pointed towards the groaning criminal in front of her. He was probably suffering the worst headache imaginable, due to the concussive round that slammed into the back of his head.

"Why were you chasing down armed men?! Did the Council order you to back me up?" Yang asked, not at all comfortable with the thought of her little sister in danger. If they did order her to, then she was going to exchange "friendly" words with them.

"Nope, I didn't even know you were here on a mission to capture these guys. I just happened to be there at the time. You're welcome by the way!" Ruby sarcastically said as she crossed her arms in annoyance that her sister didn't praise her for saving her blonde ass.

"Ruby, that was extremely dangerous! What if you had gotten hurt?! **Are **you hurt?! Were you shot on stage?!" Yang frantically questioned as she zipped to her baby sister and turned her around constantly to inspect her for any wounds. If she found a single scratch on her precious baby sis, she was going to throw them in a pit of rabid bears and keep a lid over the hole until the screaming stopped! Yang even went as far as to pull her sisters hood down and check her face for any marks.

She even gently grabbed the furry wolf ears on top of her head and turned them ever so slightly to examine them for any scratches.

"Yang, cut it out! I'm fine!" Ruby shouted with annoyance evident in her now-visible silver eyes as she wiggled out her overprotective sister's grasp, shielding her ears with her hands with a blushed face. Truth be told, she really did enjoy the feeling of someone touching her ears, but Yang didn't need to know that.

"I'm just making sure! I don't want you to get hurt!" Yang said defensively.

"**Actually, Ruby has sustained a wound on her left thigh from a bullet."** A computerized, but noticeably female and concerned, voice added.

"Who the hell was that?!" Yang screamed as she protectively brought as she brought Ruby into her chest and pointed her right gantlet in all directions.

"Yaaaaaaahhhhhh, Uuuuuhhh kaaaaaaat breeeeeehhhh!" Ruby muffled as wiggled and struggled against her sister's grasp.

"What was that Ruby?"

"**Yang, Ruby is only getting forty percent of the necessary oxygen she requires to breathe properly!"**

As Yang released her grip on her sister's head, Ruby greedily inhaled every bit of air she could.

"If you do that to me again I'LL BITE YOU ON THE NIPPLE!" Ruby screamed in anger as her face slowly lost its color and returned to its naturally pale complexion.

"You would do that to me?" Yang whimpered as instinctively shielded her chest with her arms.

"**Disregarding Ruby's unusual threat, I recommend acquiring bandages to stop the bleeding until she can receive proper medical attention."**

"Wait…is that…Penny?" Yang asked, baffled that she could hear her voice outside of HQ's computer systems.

Choosing to answer her question in a more direct fashion, Penny appeared in front of Ruby's face in a green flash, surprising Yang as she took in her appearance. She looked exactly as she did when she was speaking to them through HQ's computers, only now she was approximately one foot tall and radiating a spring green light from her holographic body.

"**Yes, my father has recently given me an upgrade that allows me to transmit my data to and from other electronic devices! I'm currently housed inside Ruby's scroll and I'm finally getting to see the world in person! Isn't it great?!" **Penny happily said as she animatedly jumped up and down in excitement.

"Uhhhh…that's…pretty cool…I guess?" Yang said as she scratched the back of her head in confusion. She truly was happy for the quirky red-headed A.I, it was just unusual to see her out of her computer back at the base. Not to say that was a bad thing, Penny had always proven to be an invaluable source of information, it was just that their entire organization was built on the foundation of secrecy, and Penny wasn't exactly the most subtle of individuals. Yang wasn't entirely sure that letting her leave the base and going in public was the best idea, even if she was accompanied by Ruby.

She would have asked Ruby more about Penny's new mobility, but her vision was completely shrouded in red as she processed what Penny had said earlier.

Her rage returned in full force as she saw the small dots of red on the ground under Ruby.

"SCREW THESE NON-LETHAL ROUNDS I'M GONNA HANG YOU ALL BY YOUR ENTRAILS!" Yang screamed at the four unconscious thugs and the shivering one she recently interrogated. The only thing keeping them alive was her more merciful sister as she grappled Yang from behind by her stomach and pulled the fiery behemoth away from her prey.

"PENNY, PLAN ALPHA: CODE YANG!" Ruby screamed to her digital companion.

"**Requesting assistance from all nearby allies with tranquilizer darts now!" **Penny cheered as she saluted and sent a distress signal to HQ.

_(Blake)_

"Bye Blake! I'll be back in a while!" Jaune shouted as he opened the door and waved his bandaged hand to the black cuteness sitting on the couch.

"Later, and make sure to pick up some more milk." She meowed as she pawed in his direction.

As Jaune closed the door behind him, Blake leaped off of the sofa and walked back to Jaune's room upstairs, relieved that she could finally indulge herself in some alone time now that her caretaker was gone. After walking into the now familiar room, she made sure that every window and curtain was closed, for she wanted to make absolutely sure that no one would be able to see her as she did this.

Satisfied with the security of the room, Blake jumped on top of the blue bed and sat herself down on the center, making sure to give herself adequate comfort and space.

"_Okay…focus…strong focus on my shape…" _she thought as she closed her golden eyes and took deep and calming breathes as she meditated, picturing every last detail of her original body that she could. The effect was instantaneous as she felt her tranquil aura consume her body as she felt every muscle in her body pulsate and stretch painlessly. She could feel every strand of fur on her body slowly recede back into her skin and travel back up to her head where they formed her wavy and silky smooth curtain of hair. The only things that remained stationary on her entire body were her trademark black ears that remained undisturbed on the top of her head.

"_Done." _ She thought triumphantly as she opened her eyes to the now misty room.

As much as she abhorred her ability to transform, she could not deny the physical pleasure it gave her as she planted her bare feet onto the floor and stretched. The feeling of loosening every muscle fiber in her body in less than ten seconds felt marvelous on a scale that she doubted anyone else could understand unless they themselves had experienced it. It was like giving oneself a thorough massage on a molecular level.

It felt great to walk on two legs again. Now Blake could finally do something productive with her time. She could finally go through Jaune's collection of books and indulge herself in her favorite hobby. She could watch T.V without worrying about raising suspicion from Jaune. She could finally walk around without having to ask Jaune to open the doors in the house.

But before she could do any of those things, she needed some freaking clothes.

She didn't care one bit that she was the only one in the house and all of the windows were blocked, she was NOT going to strut around naked in someone else's house! Especially a boy's house!

Well, technically she has been walking around naked in Jaune's house as a cat, but that's beside the point.

After rummaging through Jaune's dresser for about ten minutes, she finally found a combination of clothes she could wear comfortably: a black tank-top and a pair of white jogging pants. Unfortunately for her, all of Jaune's boxers were too baggy for her to wear, his socks were too loose for her, and she was pretty sure that he didn't keep any bras or panties around his house.

And if he did, she was going to carve a list of all of the books she has read into the pervert's back with her claws.

After she got dressed in her temporary attire, Blake decided to go through Jaune's bookcase to see what she could read to pass the time. So far, she was somewhat impressed by his choice of reading, for he possessed some notable reading material, including _Of Mice and Men_, _The Art of War_, _Call of the Wild,_ one of her favorites _Mr. Hyde, _and many Mangas and comic books that were neatly stacked in order. Every last book she scrolled through was a book that she had previously read, a fact that surprised Blake for she had no idea that she and Jaune shared such a similar interest in reading. He even reads the same comics as she does. As enlightening as that was, it was also unfortunate for Blake as she wanted to read something new to pass the time, and she had yet to find something that fitted that criteria.

That was until she noticed the black book cleverly hidden behind the row of mangas.

"What's this?" Blake muttered, wondering why it seemed that Jaune didn't want the book to be discovered by anybody.

As she pulled the mysterious tome out of its hiding spot, her eyes almost shot out her skull in shock and excitement as she read the title on the front that was printed in crimson red.

_Ninjas of Love II: Love is a Battlefield_

"Oh…my…god…" Blake breathed in amazement as caressed the treasure of the world of literature.

Never in her wildest dreams did she think that Jaune was a fan of such a beautiful work of art. Most men she knew were not interested in romantic novels as well written as the _Ninjas of Love _series, and were usually only interested in the "steamy bits", as Yang would call them, prevalent throughout every installment. Many people would jump to conclusions and make biased assumptions that the series was nothing more than pornography in the shape of words, but apparently Jaune thought otherwise. Blake could tell from the plastic bookmark placed in the middle of the book that Jaune was genuinely interested in the material just as she was, an observation that sent Blake's fondness of the goofy boy skyrocketing. But what Blake didn't understand was how Jaune managed to obtain the treasure encased in her arms. The second installment was not due for release until three months from now, so how did Jaune manage to get an early copy?

Now that Blake thought about it, she truly didn't care. She had found a book that she had not read yet and she was dying to dive headfirst into the sequel of her most beloved book.

As her thoughts slowly shifted towards the goofball she had been living with, never before in her life did she wish that she could converse with someone outside of her organization.

_(Jaune)_

As Jaune walked through the busy streets of Vale, toting over four bags full of shopping supplies, he couldn't help but feel a slight chill down his spine, giving him the sensation that someone somewhere just uncovered one of his deepest and darkest secrets.

"_Well that's unsettling…" _Jaune thought as he entered a store with the intention of grabbing bandages for him and Blake, he used the last of them on his hand that he cut a few hours ago.

Not that it was his fault or anything! How was he supposed to know that a sword that has been in a box for a decade hadn't lost its edge like a normal sword should have?

It took him about ten minutes to find what he needed, but after ten minutes of fruitless searching, he finally found a box of medicinal bandages. Hilariously enough, he walked right past them when he first stepped into the store.

Sometimes he wondered how he didn't drown himself in the shower…

"What do you mean you're not gonna serve us!" a female voice asked angrily from the register.

"_What's going on over there?" _Jaune thought as he grabbed four boxes of medicinal bandages and walked towards the front of the store where a few other customers were gathered. As he peeked over the shoulder of one of the other customers, he saw a very furious looking blonde girl around his age and a younger girl with dark red hair and what appeared to be pointy and furry ears on her head. The two things about the girl that stood out the most to Jaune was the bright red hood she was wearing, and the way she was favoring her right leg, almost as if it hurt to use the other.

Judging from the way that the clerk was glaring disapprovingly at the duo, mostly at the red head Jaune noticed, Jaune could make an educated guess as to what the problem was. Due to the stressed relationship between humans and Faunus, shop owners would often deny service to the opposite race, an act of racism that Jaune absolutely despised. In most cases, it was often a human who was often in the wrong in these situations, and it made Jaune ashamed to see his own kind reduced to that level.

It was this type of ignorance that instigated undue tragedies, a lesson that Jaune knew all too well…

"You heard me! Get that disgusting dog out of here before I call security!" the shop owner shouted from behind the register as he reached for his phone.

"I'm not a dog! I'm a wolf!" the Faunus girl shouted as she winced from moving her leg.

"Whatever! Just beat it!"

"My sister got shot and she's bleeding as we speak! Are you **that** freaking heartless that you won't let us buy some damn bandages?!" she roared as she slammed her fists on the counter.

Jaune could have sworn that her eyes turned red for a split second as she glared murderously at the racist store owner.

"I don't care! You can take this mutt to a veterinarian for all I care!"

The blonde girl almost looked ready to pounce on top of the man and strangle the life out of him as he abusively insulted her kin, but before she could beat the life out of him, her arm was grabbed by her younger sister.

"Come on Yang, let's just go. We're attracting too much attention anyway." The younger sister said dejectedly as she limped towards the door while dragging her growling sister with her.

"PEOPLE LIKE YOU MAKE ME SICK!" Yang screamed as she slammed the door with all her might, making everyone flinch from the echoing impact and more than likely damaging the door in some way.

"_No one's gonna help them?" _Jaune thought as he looked around the store to gauge everyone else's reactions. There were indeed two people besides him who looked sympathetic towards the two sisters, but sadly there were about ten others who wore satisfied smirks and continued with their business with no intention of going to the girls' aide.

It was fitting representation of just how awfully stained society had become…

_(Yang and Ruby)_

"MONTY COW-F*BEEP*ING OUM, WHY THE *BEEP* CAN'T WE CATCH A *BEEP*ING BREAK FOR ONCE IN OUR *BEEP*ING LIVES! IS IT TOO MUCH TOO ASK, FOR JUST ONE DAY, THAT PEOPLE DO NOT GO THROUGH *BEEP*ING LEAPS AND *BEEP*ING BOUNDS TO *BEEP*ING PISS ME OFF AND GIVE ME A *BEEP*ING ANEURISM **PENNY I SWEAR TO THE COUNCIL IF YOU CENSOR ME ONE MORE TIME I WILL UPLOAD A VIRUS INTO RUBY'S SCROLL!" **Yang screamed as she ranted and stomped with her sister hesitantly limping behind her. Due to the murderous intent oozing from Yang's Aura, people who were traveling on the street instinctively fled, terrified of the feeling they were receiving as they were on the street.

"Calm down Yang!" Ruby said, glad that their weapons were confiscated by their fellow agents when they retrieved the thugs. She was also happy that they forced her to wear technological bracelet that made it impossible for her to release flames from her body. If they didn't, they would have attracted even more unnecessary attention than they already had. The store would have also most likely erupted into a mushroom cloud of the likes this world had never seen.

"**Actually, I am currently inside your Aura-restricting bracelet to ensure that it is working at optimal capacity."**

"GOOD, THEN I CAN TEST WHETER OR NOT AN A.I IS WATERPROOF!" Yang shouted as she growled at the bracelet locked on her right arm.

"**Returning to Friend-Ruby's scroll NOW!" **Penny yelped in fear as she instantaneously uploaded herself back into the safety of Ruby's scroll.

"Yang, quit threatening Penny!"

"God I need a drink right now!"

"No Yang! That's not good for your health!"

"I'M DON'T GIVE A *BEEP* **THAT'S IT GET OVER HERE YOU DIGITAL BITCH!"**

"**AAAAHHHHH! RUN FOR MY LIFE RUBY!" **

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Ruby shrieked as she balanced herself on her good leg and hopped away from her murderous sister at an unbelievable speed, gaining a decent distance from Yang as she chased her. Unfortunately, she wasn't paying attention to where she was going, and as soon as she turned a corner of a building she slammed into someone, sending them toppling over into the ground.

"Oooooooooowwwwww…" the boy under her groaned in pain as she lied on top of him while trying to regain her bearings.

"Oh crap! I'm so sorry, I didn't see you there!" Ruby apologized frantically as she jumped off of him and held her hand out to him. Gripping her hand firmly, he ignored the throbbing pain in him back and pulled himself back up to his feat while groaning, "It's okay."

However, in yet another spurt of bad luck, Yang rounded the corner while maintaining her undisturbed speed and accidently collided with an unsuspecting Ruby's back, sending them both falling on top of the boy.

Only this time, Ruby's knee was shoved into his groin as he collided with the ground.

_(Elsewhere)_

_Koharu and Tsukino stared lovingly into each other's eyes as their tongues wrestled one another in steamy and violent frenzy. As they rolled on top of one another on the moonlit grass in a sweaty embrace, Koharu grew more bold than he had ever in his life and groped his love's warm bosom, eliciting a feminine squeal from her._

"YYYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Startled by the feminine squeal she heard, her ears slightly twitched towards the direction of its origin.

"Well that was uncanny." She said as she turned the page.

For some reason, that scream sounded familiar.

_(Jaune)_

"Sorry about that again dude. I guess we kinda lost control there for a second." Yang apologized as she chuckled in an embarrassed manner.

"Speak for yourself!" Ruby shouted grumpily as she cradled her injured leg from her spot on the bench in between the two blondes.

"It's alright, I was looking for you two anyway." Jaune said in an attempt to ease their regret.

"Huh? Why?" Ruby asked.

Knowing that it was a sensitive topic to bring up and choosing his words carefully, Jaune hesitantly said, "I was…there…at the shop…" as he looked down in shame for not stepping up for them.

"Oh…" they replied dejectedly, mimicking Jaune's action as their gaze slowly descended towards the ground.

The silence between the three lasted an uncomfortable minute as they contemplated what happened earlier. It wasn't anything they hadn't seen before, especially in a city like Vale, but it was simply something that they couldn't desensitize themselves from and it was certainly something that wouldn't change anytime soon, but it was still disturbing to them.

But it didn't mean that they had to let it change them.

"I got this for you." Jaune said as he reached into one of his small plastic bags at his feet. To the girls' great surprise, Jaune handed Ruby the bag. The two girls almost hugged the kind boy as they looked at the contents of the bag: two boxes of bandages, a bottle of painkillers, and a bottle of rubbing alcohol with complementary cotton balls next to it. It wasn't often that Ruby was shown such compassion from a human outside home. It was a heartwarming experience that reaffirmed their faith that their goal will one day be achieved.

"I…don't know what to say. Thanks, uhhhh…" Ruby said as she attempted to thank the generous stranger that she had not long ago caused immense pain.

"Jaune." He finished for her, smiling happily at her to show that she was welcome.

"Thanks a lot Jaune-y boy! You're a real pal! The name's Yang, and that's Ruby!" Yang said as she got up from her spot on the bench and gave him a playful noogie.

"You're…welcome…Yang." Jaune said in embarrassment as he blushed, trying not to think about the girl's "endowment" as it waved in his face.

"Yang, I think you're choking him!" Ruby said, worried for their new friend and misinterpreting the red in his face.

"Whoops, sorry!" she said as she released him from her grip.

"It's okay." He replied as he tried to mentally beat down the redness growing in his cheeks.

"Hey Ruby, I think we better starting heading home now." She said as she helped her up onto her back so that she didn't need to put any more pressure on her bad leg. Yang felt slightly guilty that she didn't offer sooner.

"Okay, bye Jaune!" Ruby said as she waved goodbye to the blonde as he did the same.

As Jaune gathered all of his belongings and walked home, he was happy that he had done some type of good for a stranger who deserved it.

Speaking of doing good for a stranger, he wondered how Blake was doing being home alone.

_(Blake)_

"Holy damn I love this freaking book." Blake whispered to herself as she turned to page one-hundred and twelve.

She had been thoroughly enjoying her morning so far, curled up in Jaune's bed, lying under his covers, and reading the wonderful book. She initially planned to do other things with her time, but the book was simply too damn good! It contained everything that she enjoyed in a book: action, drama, and romance. She just simply could not separate herself from this book.

"Hey Blake, I'm home!" Jaune said loudly from down stairs as he closed the door behind him.

"_OH CRAP!" _ Blake thought as she panicked and leaped out of the bed.

In a blind rush, Blake sped around the room, doing everything she could to make the room undisturbed as possible. She reopened every window and every curtain, turned off every light in the room, and made his bed back up to the point where it looked as if nobody had even touched the sheets.

"Blaaaaaake! Here kitty kitty kitty kitty!"

She could hear Jaune's footsteps as they ascended the stairs, but Blake wasn't worried. She managed to make the room spotless in its entirety. The only thing she had to do was put his book back and his clothes back into the dress-OH CRAP SHE WAS STILL IN HER ORIGINAL FORM!

The door was opening!

No time!

_(Jaune)_

Well this was odd.

Jaune was currently searching the house for any sign of his furry guest, but she wasn't responding to any of his calls. He knew that she couldn't have possibly left his house because all of the windows were closed, but he was still worried about her. What if she had passed out from blood loss while he was gone? What if she …

"Blake?!" he called again more frantically as he opened the cracked door to his bedroom.

"OH MY GOD!" Jaune shouted as he was met with the shocking sight in front of him.

His _Ninjas of Love _book, that he made sure almost no one knew about, was lying on his bed for the world to see.

"How did this get out?! I made sure to put it back after I was done! Did I?" Jaune asked himself as he picked his book back where it belonged behind his stack of mangas.

Deciding to disregard it and simply deciding that he forgot to put it back, he opened his bedroom door and left the room to continue his search for the illusive cat.

If he had simply looked up when he was in his room, he would have saw her wearing his clothes and keeping herself attached to the ceiling with her claws while she mentally chanted , _"Low fat thoughts low fat thoughts low fat thoughts!"_.

_(Later at night)_

The assassin simply couldn't believe that Roman had failed to kill one measly woman. All he had to do was kill her when she was retreating, but it would appear that he couldn't even do THAT without screwing it up. True, she was more than likely dead due to her injuries, but there was no room for assumptions when it concerned her.

As the assassin zipped and sped through the darkness of the alleyways, it wondered why Cinder kept the man around. It wasn't as if he couldn't simply be replaced. Anyone could control and organize an army of low-life thugs if they had the resources, and it wouldn't be hard to find someone besides Roman who met that requirement.

As the assassin was contemplating the mystery behind Roman's continued involvement with the Order, he ceased his sprinting as he finally reached his objective: the last place the woman was seen before she disappeared. Due to his extraordinary observational skills, he could definitely tell that she had been here days prior. Speckled throughout the alleyway were small, but noticeable, dots of blood; **her **blood. Roman said that all that was left in the alleyway when he arrived here were her clothes, so it was likely that she had transformed and desperately took refuge in the dumpster, even though Roman said that only the artifact lied within.

The assassin was glad that he assumed that Roman had missed the spot, for when he dug through the dumpster himself, he found one of the woman's most valued possessions; her katana-pistol hybrid affectionately called "Gambal Shroud". But it wasn't the weapon that he was glad he found, it was what he didn't find.

The bow that she would never separate from, even if her life depended on it, was missing from the butt of the weapon.

She was still alive.

And he intended to change that.

**Looks like Blake is in trouble. I hope you guys enjoyed it! R&R and I'll see you guys later!**


	4. Chapter 4

"_Remember son, In order for you to achieve manhood, you must have honor! HONOR AND A PE-"_

"_DON'T! SAY IT!" Jane growled at her husband as they walked through the supermarket with her hands ready to shield her eight year old son's ears from Jack's inappropriate statement._

"_-NUTS" Jack smoothly in an attempt to spare himself a beating from his beloved._

_Confused by his father's logic, Jaune blinked curiously at him and asked, "Why would I need peanuts to grow up Papa?"_

"_Uuuuuummmmm….because…" Jack said as he scratched the back of his head in thought, trying to support his lame correction with a believable reason._

"_AHA! BECAUSE SON, PEANUTS ARE A GREAT SOURCE OF NUTRITION! EVERY GROWING BOY NEEDS NUTRITION TO BECOME A HEALTHY MAN, LIKE EVERY VEHICLE NEEDS TO CONSUME GASOLINE AND EVERY WOMAN NEEDS TO CONSUME A CHILL PILL AND LIGHTEN UP BEFORE THEY SEND THEIR MAN INTO A COMA!" Zack shouted in triumph as he ruffled his son's blonde silky hair._

"_Most men don't have a head as hard and dense as yours honey." Jane jabbed as she grabbed a can of green beans from the shelf above her._

"_That's what you said last ni-"_

_***PANG***_

"_OWWWWW!" Zack yelped as he crouched down and rubbed the throbbing fresh bump on the back of his head._

"_Why would you say that at night Mama? Do you beat Papa at night too?" Jaune asked innocently, worried for his father's physical health._

_Lacking any self control and simply refusing to learn from his mistakes, Zack interjected, "Well son, that depends on what you mean by "beat"!"_

_***PANG***_

"_OOOOOWWWW! I THINK YOU DREW BLOOD THAT TIME!"_

"_What?" Jaune asked, completely confused by the exchange between his eccentric father and his stoic mother._

_As she placed the slightly bloodied can into the shopping cart, she smiled sweetly at her precious baby and said, "Just ignore your silly father and stay my innocent little angel. Okay?" as she pinched his squishy cheeks._

"_Oh please, he can't ignore me! He looks up to his old man too much! JAUNE MY BOY, POP QUIZ! WHAT DOES ONE NEED TO BE A MAN?!"_

_Seizing the chance to make his father proud of him, the child leaped out of his mother's embrace and mimicked his father's stance, putting his hands on his hips confidently and resembling a stereotypical super hero._

"_TO BE A MAN, YOU MUST HAVE HONOR! HONOR AND NUTS!"_

_Every man in the vicinity who heard the little boy shout his crude exclamation instantly broke down in a series of howling laughs, amused by how irresistibly funny the boy was. Every woman instantly adorned red coloring in their cheeks as they heard how confidently he shouted it as they wondered how a little boy would be aware of their anatomy on that level._

"_AHAHAHAHAHA! THAT'S M'BOY!" Zack praised as fell to the ground, clutching his stomach and losing his balance to his laughter._

"_ZACKERY ARC QUIT CORRUPTING MY BABY GODDAMMIT!" Jane roared angrily as she strangled her husband with all of her might._

_Jaune had always wondered how his parents fell in love with one another. Most couples he saw were always exchanging kisses and holding hands as they walked beside one another, like his Uncle Ozpin and his Auntie Glynda, but whenever he saw his parents together, his father was always saying something to infuriate his mother, which would almost always lead to her beating the day lights out of him. In addition to their completely unromantic behavior towards each other, they were also different as night and day. His father was a hyperactive, obnoxiously loud, muscular blonde, while his mother was a calm, quiet, and lean woman with ebony black hair. How could two people who were so different be married and in love?_

_As Jane released her furious grip and allowed a wheezing Zack to breathe again, their ears were assaulted by the voice of an angry man and the voice of a frantic woman._

"_Why do you keep coming back here?! I told you a thousand times that I won't serve your kind, now beat it, you street urchin!"_

"_Please sir! No shops in this part of town will serve me! My little girl and I are starving!"_

_As the family of three made their way to the source of the ruckus, the two adults were angered at the sight before them, while Jaune was confused. A poor woman with brown rabbit ears, who looked like she hadn't had a decent meal in days, was on her knees in front of the man behind the cash register, crying and begging to the man. _

_Scowling at the pathetic pest on the ground before him, he displayed how heartless he truly was by spitting on the Faunus woman's face and snarled, "I don't serve trash!"_

"_PLEASE! I'LL PAY DOUBLE THE FEE! TRIPLE EVEN, JUST DON'T LET MY BABY STARVE!" The woman wailed in despair as she desperately begged the man, not even bothering to wipe the green flem trailing down her cheek._

"_I SAID LEEEEAAAAVVVE!" the store owner roared as he grabbed a baseball bat from behind his desk and brought it over his head, eliciting gasps of shock from the group of people watching._

_Terrified by the sheer brutality of what was about to happen, Jaune shoved his teary face into his mother's legs, desiring not to see the poor woman get stricken._

_Many people in the crowd were about to rush to the sick man in order to stop him before he swung, but their reaction timing was too slow, for he was already in mid-swing._

_He completed his swing, but all he hit was the vacant air in front of the shivering woman, and all he could feel at that moment was the cold sensation of sharp steel dangerously close to his neck._

_As the store owner gaped horrified at his bat that looked as if it had been cut in half, he felt the steel press against his neck with enough force to leave a slight cut._

_After hearing how silent the store had become, Jaune separated his face from his mother's legs to see his Papa right behind the monster with his sword ready to cut him should he make any sudden moves. His father didn't look anything like the father that he was used to, the man he saw wore a scowling and disapproving glare on his face as he stared at the back of his target's head. Under normal circumstances, Jaune would've been scared of his papa's angry transformation, but when he saw the lady with bunny ears unharmed, his chest instantly swelled with pride and adoration for the man._

"_If I were you pal, I would drop the other half of that bat and get on your knees with your hands behind your head." Jack growled with contempt._

"_Why are you helping a damn Faunus?! Their race caused ours so much pain and killed thousands of us, and you want to help them?!" the store owner exclaimed, shocked that his assailant was a fellow human._

"_That was during a war two whole decades ago, a war that never should have happened to begin with. Both sides have suffered enough and the world doesn't need people like you causing any more grief. I can understand you having reservations against the Faunus, but that doesn't give you any right to mistreat them on this level, now I said GET ON THE GROUND." Jack replied as he pressed Crocea Mors further into his neck, forcing the middle-aged man on to the floor._

_After he tied up the man's wrist and made sure that he wasn't a danger to anyone else, he walked over to the rabbit Faunus and gently helped her up, wiping away the spit on her tear-stained cheek as he did so._

_Shocking the woman to the point of almost passing out, Jack reached into his pocket and pulled out a sizable amount of money and put it into her, squeezing her hand gently so that she had a good grip. He also put a slip of paper into her pocket while smiling caringly at her._

"_Go to the address on that piece of paper. They'll take good care of you and your little girl, okay?" he said as he brushed her clothes off._

_To his surprise, the woman pulled him into a heartfelt hug as she sobbed into his chest, "You're an angel! I wish there were more humans like you!"_

_Impressed and amazed by the heroics of the blonde man, a large fraction of the crowd slowly erupted into a collaboration of clapping and whistling as they praised the heroic man with the beautiful sword._

_Wishing to see what his mother's reaction would be to her husband hugging another woman, Jaune looked up to her face, only to see the exact opposite of what he was expecting. Instead of being filled with contempt or jealousy like a lot of spouses would, his mother's sapphire blue eyes were filled with absolutely nothing but pure adoration and love as she looked at the generous man she was married to. _

_It was at that moment that Jaune had his answer as to why they fell in love. It was because underneath all of the jokes and goofiness, his father was in fact a brave and benign man. _

_It was at that moment that Jaune aspired to be the man his father was. _

_If only he had succeeded…_

Waking up from the reminiscent dream of his childhood, Jaune's eyes lazily split open to see his dark room with only the rays of the morning sun peaking through his blinds to illuminate it.

"Another dream about them…" Jaune depressively muttered as he rubbed his eyes.

For the past few days, Jaune's nights were spent tossing and turning in a cold and sweaty frenzy as his sleep was disturbed by the haunting dreams of his parents. It had been many years since he had healed from their untimely… "departure", and ever since then he had learned to push on and live his life happily as they intended, but lately they would often take precedence over his thoughts day and night as he tried to complete his daily tasks. Every attempt at washing the dishes was met with the images of his mother doing the same and destroyed any motivation he had in doing so. Every minute spent exercising to keep his skinny, yet somewhat muscular; body in shape was interrupted by heart wrenching flashbacks of his father doing it effortlessly with his trademark grin on his face. It had gotten so bad that he could barely look at their pictures in his photo album anymore without feeling his eyes moisten from grief. He thought that then ten years of coping would have gotten him past this by now, but evidently it didn't.

The incident with Yang and Ruby yesterday surely didn't assist in that department, for it instigated memories of the time that his father was put in that very same position as him. It was a day that Jaune couldn't forget no matter how hard he tried, for it was the day that he knew who he wanted to be as a man; a courageous and confident man that resembled his father in every way, but never before had he recalled the memory as vividly as last night. Jaune would have liked to honestly say that it was a happy memory in which he could reminisce on and be proud of who used to be his father, but no happy memory made Jaune ashamed of himself every time he recalled it. If his father had been in Jaune's shoes yesterday, he would have instantly stood up for the Faunus and her sister faster than a heartbeat like a man, something that Jaune had failed to do.

It was no longer a memory that inspired pride in who his father was, it was now a glaring reminder that Jaune was not even half the man he was, and it made Jaune ashamed to look at the wimp staring back at him over every surface of water and every pane of glass. Jaune didn't even know how he found the strength to dig through his closet and pull Crocea Mors, the only thing he inherited from his parents, out of its decade-long prison. In his family, it was traditionally given from father to son as an acknowledgement of manhood, and Jaune felt he was completely undeserving of it. Yet another reminder that he was not a real man.

As his thoughts shifted towards the sword sitting in the corner of the room, he slowly rose up from his bed and turned his head towards the digital clock on his night stand.

"_7:14…crap. I gotta get ready for classes." _Jaune mentally complained as he realized that today was Monday, the bane of every teenager's existence.

Taking great care to not disturb the sleeping cat nuzzled into his side, he slowly and gently rose from his bed to leave his room and start his day off with his routinely shower, but before he even touched his door knob, his gaze instinctively shifted towards the cherished family heirloom as the sun's rays bounced off its reflective surface and hit his eyes as if to intentionally seize his attention. The sword had indeed withstood the test of time, for it was still beautifully captivating. It was nowhere near as beautiful as it used to be, but what could one expect from a sword that hasn't been properly taken care of for a decade. As much as he thought that it shouldn't rightfully be his, he did feel ashamed of himself for letting the condition of his only inheritance dwindle.

Jaune left his room with a woeful sigh, but not before promising himself to have his sword polished and cleaned by a professional soon.

It was the least he could do for his parents…

_(Ruby)_

"Come on! Please Yang!" Ruby whined to her sister with her leg elevated as her sister finished cleaning her bullet wound.

"No, Dr. Scarlatina said that you had to stay off of your leg for the next few days. You can't leave the room until then." Yang said as she cleaned her baby sister's bullet wound with the supplies Jaune had so graciously given them.

"But Yaaaannnnggg! I'll get bored staying in bed for half a week!"

"No you won't! You've got dozens of books, plenty of video games, and a laptop with Hulu and Netflix! You've got plenty of stuff to keep you occupied!" Yang said as she gently wrapped Ruby's leg with freshly opened bandages.

"But I've read all of those books at least twice, I don't really watch T.V that much, and most of my video games are no fun alone! Are you at least gonna stay here with me while I recover?" Ruby asked, hoping that she would not have to endure hours upon hours of loneliness.

Ruffling her pouting sibling's dark red hair and wolf ears, Yang replied, "Sorry Sis, I have a meeting with the Council in about ten minutes, so more than likely I'm going to be sent away on a mission."

"Aaaaawwwww…" Ruby whined as her dejectedly lowered and her silver eyes began to moisten.

Yang truly wanted to do nothing but stay by her precious sister's side and tend to her leg injury for the next week, but she couldn't ignore a direct order from her superiors. She knew that Ruby hated being alone for extended amounts of time, despite being anti-social and socially awkward, for she craved companionship from people she felt comfortable with. She wouldn't get that from the occasional visits from a doctor she didn't know.

As an idea popped in Yang's head, she happily pulled her scroll out of her pocket and started tapping buttons on her screen, making Ruby wonder what she was attempting to do.

"**Do you need something Yang?" **Penny asked as she appeared over Yang's scroll in a bright flash of green light, startling Ruby and eliciting a surprised yelp from her.

"Hey there Penny. Can you do me a favor?" Yang asked as she waved at the digital hologram of the A.I.

"**Of course! How can I be of assistance?" **Penny happily confirmed as she put her arms behind her back, awaiting the blonde's request.

"I need you to keep Ruby company and help her with whatever she needs while I'm gone. Can you do that for us?"

As the hologram happily saluted Yang, she disappeared then reappeared next to Ruby as she uploaded herself to the red heads scroll that lied on her nightstand.

"**It would be my pleasure to spend time with Ruby!" **Penny cheered as her hologram sat down on the nightstand.

"Uhh…Penny? Not that I'm ungrateful for you staying with me, but don't you have assignments to do in HQ's main computers, or something." Ruby questioned, choosing her words carefully so that she didn't accidentally offend her.

"**Yes, but I left a temporary reconstruction of my data, a "copy" if you would, in the system to do all of my normal duties in my absence. This way, I can make sure that all of my assignments are completed and that you are taken care of as well."**

As Yang put her scroll back into her pocket and she opened the door, she waved while saying, "Bye Ruby, I'll be back as soon as I can. Have fun with Penny and stay off that leg!"

"Ok, bye Yang." Ruby said as she waved back.

After Yang closed the door behind her as she left, Penny looked towards her red headed charge and asked happily, **"So Ruby, what would you like to do first." **

"Well, I would say that we could start off with a few games, but you don't have any hands to use the controllers."

"**My lack of hands poses no problem in this situation!"** Penny cheered as she disappeared from the nightstand in a flash. Surprising Rube immensely, Penny reappeared over one of her Xbox's controllers as it turned on automatically.

"No way! Did you just upload yourself into the controller?!" Ruby asked, amazed by the A.I's feat.

"**Affirmative!" **Penny replied as she sat down on the controller. In an attempt to add a more comfortable atmosphere for Ruby, Penny snapped her holographic fingers and made a small neon-green controller appear in her hands.

"Awesome!" Ruby shouted excitedly, happy that Yang had called the girl over.

Maybe the next few days wouldn't suck so much.

_(Yang)_

"Identify yourself please." One of the two heavily armored guards at the door said as they stood securely in front of the large metal door behind them. As he gave Yang his request, he raised his left wrist towards her mouth.

"Yang Xiao Long." She replied, making sure to speak loudly and clearly.

As he retracted his hand, he press a few buttons on the device she spoke into. In a computerized voice, the device droned robotically, _"Voice Identification confirmed. Yang Xiao Long. Female. Eighteen years old. Rank: B+. Access Granted."_

No sooner had the device finished its confirmation, the guards immediately dialed numbers into the doors security system. With a resounding ping followed by a small green circle appearing on its screen, the doors elevated slowly as the two guards stepped aside, giving Yang access to the poorly lit room. She slowly walked into thick dark of the room until she halted in the middle of the room. Surrounding her were four wisps of candle fire that were lit as soon as she ceased walking. Although they did little to pierce the consumptive darkness, they were more than enough to illuminate the four shrouded figures holding them.

"_**Ms. Xiao Long, we are pleased to see you could join us." **_ A shrouded figure with the number "one" crested on its chest said in an androgynous, echoing voice.

Secrecy is power.

That was the first lesson Yang was taught when she joined.

It was the first lesson that every agent was taught when they joined.

The Council embodied this lesson, for they were the individuals whose identities were hidden from even the people of the organization they governed. They were never seen outside of their shared quarters unless the situation called for it, they trained themselves to speak through a uniform voice that did nothing to reveal their gender or true voice, and they were never seen in a meeting without their trademark cloaks that completely concealed their appearances. The only times they were ever clearly seen or heard was when they abandoned their secret persona to return to their original, and one could never know when they were walking past them in plain sight.

"I would say the same to you guys, but then again, I can barely see anything in this room." Yang joked dryly as she locked her arms behind her head, shifting to a more relaxed demeanor in an attempt to calm herself.

"_**You seem slightly…agitated, distracted even. Is there something troubling you?" **_One asked, noticing how she subtly rocked back and forth and the far off look in her eyes as if she was thinking heavily on something.

"One of my best friends is missing and probably passed out in a ditch somewhere after being screwed over on her mission, a mission that **you **wouldn't let me assist her on by the way, and now I'm pretty certain that you're going to send me on another mission after this conversation is over when all I really want to do is stay at my little sister's side while she recovers from being shot. So yeah, I'm kinda disorientated right now." Yang calmly replied, doing little to disguise the anger lacing her voice.

"_**Your anger is misplaced, Xiao Long. We aren't at fault for Ms. Belladonna's disappearance." **_Two scolded while crossing its arms disapprovingly.

Yang was doing every mental exercise she knew as she tried to refrain from exploding in an angry burst of flames.

"Oh really? I told you all that sending her in there would go wrong somehow, but you didn't listen. You could have let me join her on the mission like I practically begged you all to allow, but you didn't! Now she's missing and probably dying as we speak! If I had been there, she would have had a better chance!"

"_**If you had been there, you would have done more harm than good!" **_Two shouted angrily.

"_**The mission that we assigned Blake Belladonna and Adam Taurus was one that was of the utmost importance and required an immense amount of stealth and subtlety! YOU, on the other hand, are loud, destructive, and whenever your anger is aroused you explode into an eruption of fire and verbal vulgarity! You would have only acted as a hindrance for you are about as stealthy and subtle as a tank!"**_

As much as Yang would have liked to roar at Two and deny all of its accusations as it belittled her, she could only keep her mouth sealed as she endured the verbal beating, for everything it was saying was undeniable fact, and Yang knew it.

To spare the young woman some of the crippling depression that Three noticed was gradually degrading her self-confidence, it interjected, _**"Ms. Xiao Long, what Two is trying to communicate is that your specific talents and abilities were not necessary in the given conditions. We know that you are deeply concerned for the well being of Ms. Belladonna, many of your companions are, but you can't let rampant emotions obstruct good judgment. Do you understand?"**_

Taking a deep breath to recollect her thoughts, Yang answered, "Yes."

"_**Have faith in your friend young one. She is a very skilled agent that is not bested so easily." **_Three said.

"_**Agreed, but Ms. Belladonna's disappearance is not the purpose of this meeting. We would like to discuss your next assignment." **_One said.

"Yes."

"_**We would like you to go to the docks and investigate suspicious activity that has been reported recently. We will provide you a folder with copies of their detailed reports when you leave HQ."**_

"Suspicious activity? From who, the Order?" Yang asked curiously.

"_**Unknown, but if it is, then all the more reason to investigate. This could also be an opportunity for you to collect additional information concerning Ms. Belladonna's whereabouts."**_

"Both of my usual team mates are missing or incapacitated at the moment. Am I going solo on this?"

"_**No, we cannot be certain that this is not an insidious trap of some sort. As a safety precaution, we will be sending Sun Wu Kong and Neptune to replace Ms. Belladonna and Ms. Rose." **_Two answered.

"_Good, I'd rather have Dumb and Dumber on my side then Adam Pompous." _The brawler mentally growled, still angry at Blake's friend.

"When do I start?" Yang asked, ready to get it over with so that she can return to her and her sister's room.

"_**Immediately, and do not fret. After you complete this mission, we will give you time off to care for your sister and also search for Ms. Belladonna." **_One said with care.

Startled by One's generosity, Yang flinched in surprise before bowing while stuttering, "T-thank you."

After rising from her bow, Yang began to walk out of the circle towards the exit, but halted when the last Councilor spoke for the first time and said, **"Wait."**

"Yes?" she said as she faced it.

"_**We understand that Ruby Rose was injured saving the life of Martin Maroon. As a token of our appreciation, we would like you to give her this." **_Four said as he walked towards her. Pulling a manila folder out of his sleeve, he placed it in Yang's hands with great care.

Curious as to what they bestowed upon her little sister, Yang gently opened the folder and read the sheet of paper with the Council's stamp of approval shining on the top. As she read, she almost dropped the folder in shock.

"_Ruby Rose_

_ In honor of your brave and selfless act of heroism in saving the life of Martin Mahogany Maroon, we are pleased to inform you that we have seen it fit to ascend your rank from B- to B+. You will receive an increased pay raise, permission to undertake higher ranked missions, and eligibility to receive more advanced training. Thank you for your hard work and determination._

_ Sincerely, the Council_

"Holy crap! You're promoting her?!" Yang shouted in surprise after reading it twice.

"_**She has always had skills well beyond her rank, all we needed to confirm was that if she had the will and determination for a promotion. Her actions yesterday are a testament to those desired traits." **_Four answered as he returned to his desk.

"Umm…okay. I'll be sure to give it to her when I return." Yang said as she bowed one last time before leaving.

"_**Good luck, Yang Xiao Long. Remember our code." **_The entire Council said simultaneously as an act of praise.

Yang stopped at the door and turned around, locking her arms behind her to shift into a stance of professionalism and taking a deep breath as she prepared to recite the words that were beaten into her head since she was a child.

"We are a light house that provides sanctuary in a raging sea of chaos and disorder, we are a signal fire for the innocent who are lost in a perpetual field of danger, and we are a small flicker of light that will one day evolve into a beam of sunshine that will pierce the clouds of darkness and bathe the world in its indiscriminate light."

As she spoke proudly and clearly, her body shined with an illuminant yellow glow, brightening the dark room and leading to the Council extinguishing their candles, as they were now unnecessary.

"**We are Beacon." **

_(Jaune)_

"I'm just saying, if I was a cop and I saw a bunch of shady looking dudes dressed exactly like each other at a freaking civil rights speech of all things, I've would've kept a closer eye on them." Cardin said as he ate his ham sandwich.

"But weren't there hundreds of people attending the speech? I'd imagine that it would be difficult to keep watch over such a large crowd." Velvet said as she nibbled on a carrot.

"She has a point." Ren added in between sips of his tea.

"Well yeah, but they did kinda stand out since they wore black in the middle of a brightly colored crowd, like a mole on someone's skin, y'know?" Russel said as he tossed chips in the air and caught them in his mouth.

"What do you think Jaune?" Velvet asked, hoping to include their silent friend in the conversation.

…

"Jaune? Helloooo?" Nora called in an attempt to grab the blonde's attention as he mindlessly poked his chicken nuggets with his fork.

"JAUNE!" Nora roared in his ears, sending the startled boy leaping out of his seat while screaming effeminately.

"Dude, you've been spacing out all day! You okay man?" Russel asked with a rise of his left eyebrow.

"Uuuhhh, yeah. I just haven't been sleeping very well. What were we talking about?" Jaune said as he sat back down next to Nora.

"We were talking about the assassination attempt yesterday." Ren said as he finished his soothing drink.

"Oh yeah." Jaune said as he pushed his plate of nuggets towards Cardin, failing to find his appetite and deciding not to waste food.

Jaune really didn't feel like talking about Maroon, for the topic was discussed to death in the classrooms and hallways of Vytal University, and there wasn't anything he could contribute to the conversation that hadn't already been said. Plus he didn't feel like talking about a brave and honorable man that his father that his father would have wanted him to become.

As the five teenagers looked at their favorite goofball, they became slightly worried for him as they observed him. The first thing that aroused their worries was the fact that Jaune pushed his chicken nuggets away. Jaune was addicted to his nuggets as much as Nora was addicted to her sweets, so to see him reject them at any time was surprising. The second thing that caught their attention was the dark bags under his eyes, a clear testament to the truth behind Jaune's earlier statement concerning his lack of sleep. And finally, the last thing that concerned them all was how distracted he had been all day. During classes, he would stare off into vacant space with an empty look in his dulled blue eyes, the Jaune they knew was always alert and attentive during his classes, even through the ones he found boring.

Choosing to pick a more enthralling subject in hopes of keeping the boy's attention, Nora asked, "So the big dance is right around the corner. You guys ask anybody to it yet?"

"Uuh, actually, women have been asking me to it all day, so I'm going through all of my options right now! Y'know, making sure to pick the right one!" Russel confidently said as he crossed his arms to look convincing.

Chuckling at the obvious lie from his mohawk-haired friend, Cardin swallowed the last of his sandwich and replied, "I didn't know you were constipated Russel."

Confused by the statement, Russel asked, "What makes you say that?"

"Because you're full of crap."

"Toasty!" Nora sing-songed as the rest of the table laughed and Russel covered his face in embarrassment.

"Ok, what about **you **then smart ass! I don't see women throwing themselves at you for a dance!" Russel shouted angrily as he tried to save himself from any more embarrassment.

"Who me? **I'm **going with Selena. Y'know, that athletic super-hot cheerleader that sprayed you with mace when you leaped out of an alley way in front of her to ask her to be your Valentine." Cardin replied smugly as he mimicked Russel and crossed his arms in a show of confidence.

The only thing that could be heard over the sound of Russel banging his head repeatedly against the cafeteria table was the eruption of laughter from Velvet, Ren, and Nora as they enjoyed the banter between the two boys.

"Oooh! Do you think you can ask her to get me a date with Melanie?!" Jaune asked Cardin excitedly with hope oozing from his voice.

"Jeesh Jauney-boy, how many times do I gotta tell you?! Just give it up man!" Cardin said exasperated, yet happy that the boy was lightening up for the first time today.

"Never!" Jaune shouted dramatically and defiantly with fire in his eyes.

"Jaune, throughout the entirety of our enrollment in this school, Melanie has probably rejected your requests for a date over a hundred times." Velvet said as she tried to make him see reason and cease his attempts to "woo" the cold girl.

"One hundred twenty-four times, actually." Ren added as he poured himself more tea.

"So?! She'll come around…eventually…" Jaune said, more so attempting to convince himself rather than his friends.

"Well, this has been entertaining, but I think we'd better get ready for work." Ren said as he rose from his seat and addressed Nora and Jaune.

As he looked at his watch, Jaune noticed that they had about forty minutes to get to the pizzeria and get in their uniforms so that they could begin their shift.

"Yeah, good idea. See you tomorrow guys." Jaune said as he waved while following a walking Ren and a skipping Nora out of the cafeteria.

After waving back at the retreating half of their group, Russel slowly looked towards the rabbit Faunus sitting to his right with a suave look on his face.

"Soooo, Velvet."

"No thank you Russel, I'm not interested."

"DAMMIT!"

_(Blake)_

"_Damn…I need a shower." _Blake angrily thought as she took painful strides across the streets of Vytal.

If there was a single day of the week that Blake despised, it was Monday.

Every time she got out of bed and checked her calendar, her mood instantly soured when her eyes landed on its label on the current day. Most people her age despised the day because it was the day when their weekend ended and they were forced to abandon the warm embrace of their bed and venture into the "jaws of hell" known as school or work, but that was only a partial reason for her abhorrence. The primary reason she disliked Mondays was because every time she left her house to accomplish something, something unfortunate would occur and completely ruin her progress, and if that was not the case, then the objective of her day was one that was unpleasant on many levels like the one today.

Today was no different. This morning, Blake planned to take full advantage of Jaune's absence for the whole day, for she knew that he was a college student and would have classes all day on Monday. With that in mind, she borrowed one of his black t-shirts, a black jacket, and a pair of his blue jeans, and the smallest pairs of shoes she could find in his closet. None of the articles of clothing were a comfortable fit for the Faunus, but it was sufficient for what she needed to do.

There was no doubt in Blake's mind that the Order had acquired the cargo that she was ordered to steal. She left almost everything she had on her person in the dumpster when she was forced to hide in that disgusting dumpster, and the only reason she didn't lose her bow was because it was the only article of clothing that stayed attached to her during her transformation. Regrettably, the second item of her inheritance was left behind; her mother's weapon that Blake now used in her honor, Gambal Shroud. She was fairly sure that neither Roman nor Jaune found it because everything they retrieved of hers was closer to the surface than Gambal Shroud, so she was fairly sure that it was still lying unattended in the pool of trash, a thought that both saddened and angered her. It was just as precious to her as her trademark bow and she didn't feel complete without it. She had hoped to recover more from her injuries before going out into the city, but she was not healing fast enough for her taste, and she desperately desired to retrieve her precious weapon.

After spending hours walking through the streets in uncomfortable baggy clothes and enduring stinging injuries, she finally found the reeking trash can that Jaune found her in. Blake knew that she would need to "dumpster dive" in order to retrieve her precious weapon, but she didn't want to ruin clothes that were not her own. Making sure that she was securely hidden in the darkness of the alleyways, she transformed into her smaller form, held her breathe, and swam through the various types of garbage in hopes of locating Gambal Shroud.

She dug through the dumpster for a large majority of her day, enduring stenches that almost killed her due to her heightened sense of smell, and swallowing her body's desire to vomit, but her efforts finally came to fruition when she finally found the other half of her inheritance lying next to a half-eaten green corndog and what appeared to be a dirty diaper. She would have leapt in joy, but as soon as she grabbed her weapon, she pounced out of the dumpster, transformed into her original form, and vomited her guts out in the darkness of the alley way, making sure that no one saw the nude teenager crouched on the ground releasing the contents of her stomach in a stream of puke.

So here she was now, painfully limping home with aggravated wounds with a horrific after taste in her mouth. As she passed by the various pedestrians on her way back to Jaune's house, she couldn't help but appreciate yet another benefit of her transformation; the ability to conceal odors in between forms. In her current state, she smelled no different from when she left the house, but were she to shift back into her feline form, she would smell exactly like the dumpster she previously bathed in. Hopefully, she would have time to bathe herself in an actual shower when she returned so that she wouldn't subject Jaune to the putrid aroma caking her fur.

"_Uuuggghhh… I can still taste it…" _Blake mentally groaned as she grimaced from the after taste of puke in her mouth.

It was safe to say that by now Jaune's classes were over, but he was more than likely making his way to his job, so she had ample time to get back home. She would've loved to take the time to find a water fountain and clean her mouth out, but she didn't know how long his shift was, so she wanted to get home as quickly as possible. She also didn't want to alarm the boy with another disappearing act like yesterday.

"Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap!" a voice shouted in panic from behind her.

"We have about thirty minutes!" another voice shouted from farther away.

"JAUNE WATCH OUT!"

"_JAUNE!" _ Blake mentally screamed in disbelief as she spun around.

"WATCH OUT!"

Due to the shock of encountering the blonde, her mental reflexes were clouded by surprise, leaving her unable to dodge the collision with the sprinting blonde. With a pained yelp, the teenagers were sent collapsing into the sidewalk.

God damn it she hated Mondays.

"Oh my God! I am so sorry!" Jaune shouted in fear that he might have hurt the girl he was currently on top of, feeling horrible that he, in an act of carelessness, had possibly hurt her in his mad rush to get to work on time. Before he could get off of the poor girl and help her, he froze in shock as he looked at her. To put it simply, she was possibly one of the most beautiful women he had ever seen in his entire life. Her flawless, slightly pale skin radiated as the sunlight reflected off of her, giving her a radiant appearance and making her resemble an angel in his eyes. Her hair was blacker than sky of the darkest of nights, and was equally as beautiful as it cascaded down her shoulders in silky waves. Despite both of these divine qualities, the thing that Jaune found absolutely heavenly about her was her eyes. He couldn't help but stare amazed into the sparkling pools of glowing gold as they stared back at him.

There was something familiar about them…

"Uuummm…could you please get off of me?" she requested, looking surprised and sounding slightly intimidated.

Becoming aware of the compromising position he was in as he lied over her on the sidewalk, Jaune's face grew the darkest shade of red and jumped off the woman and held his hand out while screaming, "I AM SO SORRY!"

Still surprised that she "bumped" into the boy by complete chance, she took his hand while hesitantly saying, "It's…okay, just watch where you're going next time."

Jaune would have liked to start a conversation with the enchanting woman who, for some reason, looked surprised to see him, but before he could attempt to make conversation with her, the collar of his shirt was pulled as he was dragged away by a panicking Nora.

"PICK UP CHICKS LATER JAUNEY-BOY! WE'RE GONNA BE LATE!" Nora shouted as she forced Jaune into a fumbling sprint behind her as she drug him away.

Trailing behind his lover and his best friend, Ren stopped and bowed towards the still surprised girl while sincerely saying, "I am very sorry for my friend. He is a grade-A klutz and has the grace of a remedial flamingo. Please don't call the cops on us."

After making his apology and request, he sprinted in the direction his companions sped off, hoping that he could catch up.

After she lost sight of the retreating backs of the awkward trio, Blake released the breathe she didn't even know she was holding and continued on her way back to Jaune's house, fighting the blushing in her cheeks and trying to forget the look she received from her blonde companion.

The rosy shade that stained her pale face was a clear indication that she had failed in doing both.

_(Elsewhere)_

If there was one thing that Sun Wu Kong hated to do, it was sit in one spot for an extended amount of time without entertainment, which was exactly what he was doing as he sat on the top of a building in between his partner in crime, Neptune, and his child hood friend, Yang.

Currently, they were waiting patiently on the building, using binoculars to scope out the docks and waiting patiently for any sign of suspicious activity, but the past three hours of observing and scouting were fruitless as they didn't see anybody enter or leave the docks. Scouting the seemingly barren docks in search of activity was hard enough, but the sun had longed retreated behind the horizon and was replaced with the fragmented moon, hindering the visibility of both Neptune and Yang and making it more difficult for the team to split up and search. Sun was the only one out of the group that could see clearly due to him being a Faunus, but he had long given up on their search.

That was why he was entertaining himself by conversing with Neptune until Yang decided to go home.

"So you're telling me that you would choose a bunch of frag grenades over stickies?" Neptune asked in disbelief.

"Hell yeah I would! Frags are way better when it comes to blowing people away! Sticky grenades just don't have a satisfying blast radius to me." Sun said as he lied down on his back, gazing at the moon as he tried to count all of its separated pieces.

"Yeah, but sticky grenades are more likely to knock an enemy out. A frag would just temporarily blow a few enemies away."

"Not if you have awesome grenade tossing skills like this guy." Sun boasted as he pointed towards his toothy smile.

"Oh please, I've seen you miss targets five feet away from you."

"Shut up Blue-tard." Sun growled as he flipped off the smiling bluenette.

"What do you prefer Yang; frags or stickies?" Neptune asked he faced the buxom blonde leaning towards the edge of the rooftop as she scoped the docks with her binoculars.

"Yeah cool whatever." Yang quickly replied as she continued to observe the docks, not at all paying attention to the boys' conversation.

The two males exchanged a worried glance in response to her careless response from their friend. Usually, she would be the ones to initiate the seemingly irrelevant conversations between the trio, but ever since their friend Blake went missing Yang had been unusually, and understandably, testy. Her erratic behavior only worsened when she returned when she returned from her mission briefing with the Council, so Sun and Neptune could infer that the Council somehow upset her.

"Yang, are you okay?" Neptune asked despite already knowing the answer.

"Yeah, why do you ask?" she replied, keeping her eyes glued to her binoculars.

"You've been kind of…off ever since you came back from the meeting. Did something happen?" Sun asked, sitting up and facing her to let her know that he was giving her his undivided attention.

Under normal circumstances, Yang would have lied and erected a façade in order to convince them that there was nothing bothering her, but she simply lacked the motivation to lie.

"Is it because of Blake?" Neptune asked.

"Sort of…" Yang mumbled.

"What's the problem?" Sun asked.

With a heavy sigh of pent up stress, Yang decided to indulge her two friends and said, "My sister is getting promoted."

"Why would that upset you? I thought that you, of all people, would be happy for her." Sun asked, confused as to why Ruby ascending the ranks and becoming more successful would upset Yang.

Saving Yang the trouble of attempting to explain herself to the blonde monkey, Neptune answered, "Because a higher rank means that she will participate in more dangerous missions than she previously did."

"Oh…" Sun said, understanding Yang's reason for her concern.

It was common knowledge among the agents of Beacon that Yang was extremely protective of her little sister, and for good reasons. She was never comfortable with her sister becoming a fellow agent, but submitted to the fact that it was ultimately Ruby's decision in the end. Every time they were sent on a mission together, Yang would double her efforts to succeed and shield her sister from harm, but if Ruby was ascended to the rank of _B+_, then she would be eligible to start undertaking solo missions, meaning that Yang wouldn't be there to protect her. She had already lost enough of her family, and now possibly her best friend, so if anything happened to Ruby it would destroy Yang, so Sun could understand why Yang was fearful and uncharacteristically distressed. It would also explain why she was taking their current mission so seriously. If the Order was involved in the investigation, then the mission could possibly gain them a lead on their missing bibliophile, but it was clear that the stress of the past few days was beginning to take its toll on the blonde girl, for she was tired and drained. She wasn't in a favorable condition to fight, so if they were to be engaged in a combat situation, then she would most likely pay for it.

With that in mind, Neptune put a comforting hand on her shoulder and beckoned, "Let's go home now Yang."

"But what if something happens while we're gone? What if we miss a lead…" Yang questioned, worried that their absence would end negatively for them in the end.

"Yang, you're exhausted and stressed out. It's eleven o'clock and we've been here since six. You've been staying up all night in clubs trying to find leads on Blake. There's nothing here right now and if we spend all night here and something does happen, you'll be too tired to deal with it properly. You need to go home and rest." Neptune said, trying to convince her to see reason.

A full minute passed before Yang slowly separated her eyes from the binoculars. With a hefty sigh, she rose from her spot while breathing, "Okay…"

They would just have to come back later.

As the three teenagers collected their belongings and leaped off into the distance via rooftops, they were completely oblivious to the figure perched atop a crane, observing there every move through the lens of a sniper rifle.

_(Elsewhere)_

"Blake, I'm home!" Jaune shouted as he closed the door behind him.

"_Hopefully she isn't playing hide and seek with me again." _Jaune thought as he walked up the stairs on his way to his room.

Luckily for him, he wouldn't have to comb through every inch of the house while shouting her name in worry. As he opened the door to his room, he found her curled up comfortably on a pillow in the corner of the room, next to his sheathed sword. Trust Blake to unintentionally brighten his day with her irresistible cuteness; she made it possible for him to look at Crocea Mors and not get sad or depressed from it. As much as he didn't want to disturb her peaceful sleep, he needed to change her bandages and feed her dinner. He didn't want her wounds getting irritated and she needed ample nutrition to heal properly.

"Wake up Kitty Lovin's." he gently cooed as he walked towards the cat, waking her up and causing her to look towards him drowsily.

He would have liked to gently pet the black kitten and then nuzzle her in a warm hug, but there was one major problem that stopped him from doing so.

Blake smelled fricking horrible!

"Aaauugghh…Blake, what the hell did you do while I was gone!? Did you swim in the toilet or something?" Jaune shouted disgusted as he pulled the collar of his shirt over his nose.

"No, but I'm pretty sure that I would smell ten times better if I had, and you're one to talk; you smell like greasy pizza drowned in sweat." Blake sassily replied as she rose from her bed and stretched her limbs, slightly irritated that she over slept. She had originally intended to bathe herself before Jaune returned home, but painfully limping across the city twice and losing her breakfast took its toll on her body. No sooner had she snuck back in the house, her body screamed at her in demand for a, as Yang would say, "cat nap". She inevitably submitted to her body's needs, but she didn't expect to fall into such a deep sleep.

"Come on Blake. Let's get you cleaned up." Jaune said as he gently picked up the cat.

"Wait…what do you mean "cleaned up?" Blake asked fearfully as the blonde carried her gingerly as he left the room and walked across the hallway.

To Blake's great horror, he was heading towards the door on the far left.

As soon as she realized which door it was, all of her reasoning as a Faunus completely vanished as her animalistic nature slowly clouded her mind.

It was the door to the bathroom.

"Time for a bath Blake!" Jaune said happily.

He was completely unaware of the savage beast that awakened in his arms.

**Oh Jaune, you poor fool. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thanks for reading!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Happy Labor Day guys!**

**I'm sure that you have noticed the new picture for the fanfic. The last time I updated, Kegi Springfield, a very talented artist and fan of A Friend in Need, posted fanart of it and it was FREAKING BEAUTIFUL! I STRONGLY suggest you give his stuff on a look. He has drawn fanart for a few RWBY fanfics and they are all well drawn and definitely worth a look!**

**Let the story commence! **

"Y'know Ren, sometimes I think that we should just go ahead and move in with Jaune." Nora said as she walked beside her silent boyfriend in the dark of the night.

"Reason being?" he inquired.

"Because the poor guy needs us in his life! Where would he be if he couldn't call us to help him every time he manages to get himself in some type of trouble? We might as well live with him. Save him some minutes on his scroll." Nora answered with a humored chuckle.

"So you would be perfectly fine with never being alone with each other again? Never being able to do "you know what" without having to make sure that he is out of the house?" Ren asked with a rise of his eyebrow, amused that Nora could never go a day without their special alone time.

"Uuuuuhhhh…on second thought, Jaune has a job. He can afford the extra minutes." Nora amended, realizing the truth behind Ren's words.

"All joking aside, I am worried about the text message he sent us. It had so many typos it almost looked like he was typing it in a rush."

"What did it say exactly?"

"Ten and nota i ned help rite now pleese." Ren said, making sure to enunciate on every mistake in Jaune's usually decent grammar to prove his point.

"Aw come on, it can't be THAT bad!" Nora said, thinking that either Jaune was exaggerating his distress or Ren was over reacting.

Until she heard the most unmanly shrieks of pain coming echoing from the distance.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH"

After the ringing in his ears subsided to a bearable level, Ren looked towards the startled ginger with a challenging look, as if to say "You were saying?"

"That could be anyone!" Nora said defensively.

"REN! NORA! HEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLPPPPP!" The voice screamed through a fit a sobs.

Ren's maintained his stare, increasing its effect by raising his eyebrow questionably.

"Well Jaune isn't the only one that knows us Ren! We have other friends too y'know!" Nora shouted as she crossed her arms, refusing to admit that her lover was correct.

As soon as she finished her excuse, Ren's scroll lit up and started playing "Slow Ride", Ren's favorite song and his personal choice of ringtone. He reached into his pocket and pulled it out, but almost dropped it out of surprise as he opened it and the line came through.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH-"

Ren closed the scroll immediately before it blew his eardrums out. After swiping his finger across the screen a few times, he pointed the device towards Nora to show her its contents. Much to her chagrin, it was the "Recent Calls" list showing that the last call was from Jaune.

…

…

…

…

"Screw you Ren." Nora said flatly before breaking off into a mad sprint in the direction of Jaune's house.

"Again? But we just finished a half hour ago." Ren replied like the smart ass he was as he sprinted next to her.

They didn't have to run far, for they were only two blocks away from his house. As soon as they reached his house, they immediately grew concerned from the lack of screaming coming from the house. Wasting no time with unnecessary manners, Nora kicked the door open while shouting his name. Much to their confusion, they saw Jaune whimpering with tears staining his cheek as he stood rigidly in the center of the living room, looking towards the two with a look of pure plea in his frantic eyes. It was a strange sight for Ren and Nora, but the most unusual part of their friend's condition was the fact that the only article of clothing he was wearing was his boxers.

"Holy crap! Are you ok?!" Nora shouted concerned that her friend's face was littered in what appeared to be small scratches.

Jaune's right index finger zipped over his lips as he shushed her in pure fear.

"Be quiet. You'll startle her." He whimpered as he shivered in fright.

"What? Startle who?" Ren asked, curious as to what happened to put his friend in such a deplorable condition.

"Look…behind…me…" Jaune wheezed as he started to sweat profusely.

The worried couple to a step towards the blonde after Ren closed the door behind them, but they immediately halted as Jaune swiftly shot his hands out while squeaking "Don't get close!"

Making sure to abide by his odd request, the two teenagers slowly kept to the walls of the living room as they walked around Jaune to see what his problem was.

Ren had to slap himself twice to ensure that he wasn't hallucinating.

Nora had to bite her lip to ensure that she didn't shout "WHAT!?" in confusion.

Blake, the usually harmless and docile cat that Ren and Nora had taken a liking to, was growling and hissing at Jaune as she was securely attached to Jaune's ass, using her claws to secure her spot and cause the blonde as much pain as possible. For some reason, her usually fluffy coat of fur was dripping wet, making her fur look unkempt and spiky. She now resembled a demonic feline instead of an adorable kitty.

"What…How…Why?" Ren asked in a loss of words out of pure disbelief as he futilely attempted to figure out how Jaune got in this situation.

"Dude, what did you do to this poor cat?" Nora asked as she checked the cat twice to make sure that it was Blake; she wasn't wearing her trademark bow around her neck.

Making sure to keep his voice down so that he doesn't alarm Blake and give her reason to dig her claws further into the flesh of his cheeks, Jaune said, "Well…"

_(Earlier that night)_

_Jaune could tell from the second that he closed the bathroom door behind him that Blake was not going to enjoy this, because as soon as he entered the white room, she started meowing constantly with the occasional hiss directed towards the bath tub. This was going to be the first time he ever bathed an animal, so he didn't know exactly what to expect or if there was a uniform, proper method to do so, but Blake smelled absolutely horrific. Her stench indicated that she was somehow filthy, and if he wanted to make sure that Blake wouldn't develop an infection in her still-healing wounds, he would need to make sure that she was regularly clean so that the filth wouldn't fall into them. To be honest, Jaune was slightly intimidated by the feral growls coming from the kitty that was usually calm. He had always heard that one of the most difficult things to do as an owner of a pet was to give it a thorough bath, and that especially applied to cats, but it was a task that needed to be done to take proper care of his furry charge._

"_There there, easy now kitty. This won't hurt a bit." Jaune cooed gently in an attempt to calm the cautious feline as he gently placed her in the center of the tub after removing her bow and putting it near the sink. _

_It seemed to elicit the desired effect. Blake's growls and hisses slightly subsided as she crouched low to the ground with her tail in between her legs._

_Deciding that she was now calm enough to attempt to bathe, Jaune reached over to the right of the tub towards the knobs. After gripping the knob that controlled the flow of warm water, he turned it towards the right, causing the warm water to spill out of the faucet and into the white porcelain tub._

_It was the first of many mistakes he would make that night._

_As soon as the water slapped against the surface of the tub and echoed throughout the bathroom, Blake jumped into the air with a sharp yelp of fright and tried desperately to claw her way out of the tub, but she couldn't maintain a decent grip on its surface._

"_Whoa easy Blake! It's not gonna hurt you." Jaune said as he reached over and tried to gently grab the cat as it panicked._

"_RRREEEEOOOOWWWWRRRR!"_

"_OOOOWWW SON OF A BITCH!" Jaune screamed as he clutched his abused arm._

_Alarmed that the blonde tried to grab her while she was trying to escape from the menacing sound of the pouring wetness, Blake seized the opportunity to escape and used the boy's arm as a stable foothold and dug her claws into his skin, leaping out of the wet trap and curling into the corner of the bathroom next to the door._

_Jaune never knew how painful the scratch of a cat could be until now! Despite how small her claws were, they still managed to inflict such horrible pain!_

_After Jaune felt the pain in his arm begin to numb, he turned towards the hissing feline after turning the water off. "I'm sorry Blake. Did I scare you?" _

_An angry hiss and a swift swipe in his direction was his only reply._

_Flinching from the furious body language the Blake communicated, he gently picked her back up while whispering, "Okay, I'll make sure to be gentle this time okay."_

_Praying that she wouldn't pounce on him or leap away the second he turned away from her, he turned the knob once more, only this time he made sure to do it lightly to minimize the amount of noise. To Jaune's great relief, Blake didn't have an intense panic attack this time, so he assumed that as long as he didn't make too much noise he would be safe. His assumption was immediately punished as he cupped water in his hands and brought it towards the miffed cat._

_Before he could even get a drop of water on Blake, she shot towards the unsuspecting boy in a black blur and wrapped her limps around his right arm and hooked her claws into it, causing the boy to squeal in pain as he dropped the small collection of water._

"_OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW! OW!" Jaune cried as his cat cut off the circulation in his arm and penetrated his flesh._

_Never in Jaune's wildest dreams did he think that bathing such a small creature could be such an excruciatingly painful experience! If he knew that it was going to be this difficult, he would have waited a few days so that he could prepare, if that was even possible. He wasn't even sure that one could prepare to take on such a ferocious beast!_

"_Blake! Could you PLEASE let me go?!" Jaune wheezed painfully as he brought his arm up to make eye contact with Blake._

"_HEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHH!" Blake growled as she displayed her miniature, razor sharp fangs to him, making Jaune flinch in momentary fright._

_Jaune's first thought was to try to separate the hissing demon from his arm by pulling her off, but an idea struck him as he looked at the faucet again. Hoping to motivate Blake to release his pale arm, he turned the warm water on and hovered Blake under the pouring faucet._

_Jaune's plan achieved the desired results, just not in a way he had hoped._

_Infuriated that the boy soaked her with such a dirty tactic, Blake released Jaune's captive arm, leaped from the spot where she landed, and attached herself to Jaune's face._

"_Oh crap…" Jaune thought, knowing what was to come._

"_RRRRREEEEEEEOOOOOOOORRRRRRR!"_

"_OOOOOOOHHHHHH MMMYYYYYY GOOOOOOODDDD!" Jaune wailed as he ran blind circles in the bathroom, fumbling and trying desperately to separate the cat from his face as she slashed and bit it. After a full minute of mercilessly using his face as a scratching post, Blake jumped off of his aching head and returned to her spot in the corner of the room._

"_WHY ARE YOU BEING SO EVIL?! IT'S JUST A FREAKING BATH!" Jaune screamed as he fell to ground and cradled his face while he miserably rocked back and forth on the ground._

_For the love of everything holy why was this cat being such a douche?! He knew that cat's despised getting wet, but he was pretty sure that NO CAT would react this badly to it! _

_That's it! NO MORE MR. NICE GUY!_

_As a fiery blast of determination engulfed his soul, Jaune angrily slammed his fist onto the ground as he gritted his teeth through the pain of his scratches. With renewed vigor, he jumped up to his feet and glared heavily into Blake's furious yellow eyes._

"_You are indeed a very difficult adversary to defeat Blake the Cat, but I promise you that I possess the superior will between us. I have been rejected by my crush over one hundred times and I still have the determination to ask her out for a night on the town every freaking day. If I can do that, then I'm pretty sure I can find the strength to bathe you. So know this you little fur ball, I don't care if I have to wrestle you in the tub myself, I don't care if I have to keep you close with a leash, and I don't care if I have to endure the pain of a thousand cat scratches! BY THE END OF TONIGHT, YOUR FURRY BLACK ASS WILL BE LATHERED AND RINSED, OR MY NAME ISN'T JAUNE MILES ARC!" Jaune roared as he threw all of his clothes off, except for his white boxers._

_As he glared challengingly towards his adversary, he reached behind him and grabbed the blue bottle filled with his thickest shampoo. In an intimidating fashion, he squirted the blue gel into his fingers and slowly traced symbols on his face, using the shampoo as a type of war paint. After he finished applying his face paint, he crouched towards the ground and grabbed his knees, resembling an enraged sumo wrestler._

_This…__**WAS A TRIAL OF MANHOOD!**_

"_TO BE A MAN YOU MUST HAVE HONOR! HONOR AND A PE-AAAAAAHHHHHHH THE SHAMPOO GOT IN MY EYE'S IT BURNS!" Jaune screamed as he spun around, bent over, and drowned his eyes in water to alleviate the burning._

_Unfortunately, Jaune didn't know the first rule of battle: __**never turn your back on the enemy.**_

_Noticing that the intellectually questionable human that had been trying to drown her foolishly turned around and exposed himself, Blake seized this opportunity to attack him once more, but where should she strike? It would have to be somewhere sensitive to ensure that the maximum amount of damage and pain was delivered. Noticing the swaying of the boy's backside, Blake's eyes zoned and locked on her target. After instinctively licking her lips, Blake flew through silently, like the most deadly of predators, and extended her claws._

"_**Try to dominate me with your evil wet substance, will you? You will pay for your insolence human." **__Blake's inner animal growled as her claws penetrated the smooth flesh of her target._

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA-_

_(Elsewhere)_

_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"_

_Alarmed by the screaming from the distance, Yang stopped in her tracks behind Neptune and Sun._

"_What's up?" Sun asked._

"_Nothing…it's just…that scream sounds oddly familiar." Yang said before shrugging her shoulders and continuing their trek back to HQ._

_(Present)_

Nora and Ren could only stare baffled at the half-naked boy and his cat that had a firm grip on his butt.

"Soooo…why did you call us again?" Nora asked, still trying to process the anomaly in front of her.

"Please…get her off…" Jaune painfully wheezed.

In most situations, Ren would have instantly jumped to his best friend's rescue, but as soon as he took a step towards the feral cat, she twisted her head towards him and growled menacingly at him.

"**This frail human is MY bitch now. If you would like to avoid being designated as the same, I suggest you don't come any closer." **Blake hissed as her grip tightened, sending Jaune into even more pain.

"Uuuummm…and how exactly do I do this without dying?" Ren asked as he took a cautious step back.

"Aw c'mon Ren, it's just a fifteen pound kitty! How dangerous could she be?" Nora asked as she walked towards the cat to grab her.

"NO NORA WAIT!" Ren screamed.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Nora screamed as Blake leaped off of Jaune's rump and onto Nora's chest, punishing her severely by scratching her vulnerable face.

It was going to be a long, **painful **night for the three teens…

_(Elsewhere)_

"_OH MY F***ING GOOOOODDDDD! I CALL HACKS! THERE IS NO WAY YOU COULD HAVE POSSIBLY KNOWN I WAS GOING TO BE THERE!"_

"**Actually N00bxSlaya, you have spent over 53% of the game in the Southeast region of the map. It was not difficult to predict your location."**

"_SCREW YOU! AND WHY ARE YOU TALKING LIKE A F***ING ROBOT, YOU GODDAMN NO-LIFE!"_

"**Your insult is illogical, for if I did not possess life, I wouldn't be able to play the game and speak to you."**

"_DON'T BE A SMART-ASS YOU BITCH!"_

"**I believe the appropriate response in this situation would be "You mad bro"?"**

"_I F***ING HATE YOU!"_

"_Maybe this wasn't such a good idea…" _Ruby thought as she watched her digital friend play against people on Call of Duty.

To Ruby's great surprise, despite having no experience with anything of the sort, Penny was great at video games. Ever since Penny displayed her unusual ability, Ruby suggested that they spend the day playing video games with one another. Out of all of the games that they played, it became apparent that Penny preferred first-person shooters, not to say that it was because it was the only type of game she excelled at. In every game that Ruby challenged the A.I to, she would have her butt kicked in every one. Interested to see just how good Penny was, she later suggested that they play online, an idea she now regretted. Penny completely dominated the competition and had yet to be killed, a feat that attracted negative attention from the enemy team and many praises from her team.

In the game she was currently in, her K/D was 25/0 with over half of her kills being at the expense of "N00bxSlaya", a player on the enemy team that took offense to her skills. For the past twenty minutes, he had been verbally assaulting the A.I, but she would always reply with a logical statement assessing the flaws in his accusations and censor him much like she did Yang, angering him even further.

If Ruby didn't know any better, she would say that Penny was enjoying toying with the immature player.

"_HOW IN THE HELL DID YOU KILL ME FROM ACROSS THE F***ING MAP WITH A GRENADE?!"_

"**I deduced that in an attempt to maintain distance from me, you would switch to your sniper class and try to kill me from afar. I simply chose one of the two most used spots people snipe from and threw the fragmentation grenade in its general vicinity. May I suggest that you try to find a less predictable position?"**

"_MAY I SUGGEST YOU SHUT THE HELL UP AND DIE ALREADY?!"_

Taking offense to the snide remark from N00b, Penny responded by giving him a taste of his own medicine and preformed a perfect headshot on him as soon as he respawned, subtly chuckling as she pulled the trigger.

Okay, now Ruby knew she was enjoying this.

"_ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME!"_

"**I didn't realize that you were a boy scout until recently N00bxSlaya." **

"_WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME A BOYSCOUT?!"_

"**Because all you do is **_**camp**_**." **She answered happily, joyous that she successfully made a joke.

Immediately after she finished her insulting joke, the entire lobby full of players erupted into a sea of "OOOOHHHHHHSSSS!" and outrageous laughter.

"_Shots fired!" _one player screamed as he laughed.

Shocked that her profile just received over ten friend requests, Ruby said "I think that's enough video games for now Penny. It's time for bed anyway."

"**Ok!" **Penny said happily as she shut off the Xbox and transferred back to Ruby's scroll.

"Did you enjoy making that guy angry?" Ruby asked as she lied down on her bed.

"…**maybe…"**

Ruby had to restrain herself from laughing at Penny's mischievous answer and falling out of the bed.

One would think that all A.I had the personalities of stereotypical robots, but Penny was more than enough proof that it was nothing more than a stereotype. As long as Ruby has known her, Penny has always been the cheerful type that was almost always smiling about something. Despite having poorer social skills than Ruby, she was possibly the friendliest individual in all of Vale and was always vibrantly full of life. She also possessed a mischievous nature, as proven by her encounter with N00b and the occasional pranks she would play on certain agents in Beacon. A personality as happy and endearing as hers was something that no simple computer could imitate or fake, but it was still something that made Ruby curious. How was a digital fabrication like Penny able to have feelings and personality as if she was a normal girl?

"Hey Penny…" Ruby asked as she turned towards the green hologram lying next to her.

"**Yes?" **Penny replied as she smiled at the red-head.

"Can I… ask you something personal?" Ruby asked hesitantly.

"**Of course!" **Penny happily complied.

"Ok…umm…how are you…so happy all of the time?" Ruby asked.

Confused by her question, Penny asked, **"Can you elaborate?"**

"Well…you're an A.I…right?"

"**Correct." **Penny confirmed with a nod of her holographic head.

"…how do you have…feelings? You're the only A.I I've ever seen with…so much personality. What makes you different?" Ruby asked, hoping that Penny understood the question and didn't take offense.

Ruby instantly wished she hadn't asked when she saw Penny's smile reverse into a subtle frown.

"I mean you don't have to answer that! I was just curious! I'm sorry!" Ruby shouted in a panic as she wildly shook her hands towards the A.I.

"**No no it's fine…it's a perfectly reasonable question." **Penny replied in an attempt to calm Ruby down.

"**It's just…a difficult question to answer…" **Penny said depressively as she closed her eyes.

"**May I answer that another time Ruby?" **she asked sadly.

"Yeah…sure…" Ruby said comfortingly as she closed her eyes.

"_Me and my big mouth…" _Ruby mentally scolded herself, ashamed that she made one of her friends so depressed with just one insensitive question.

Before she let sleep consume her consciousness, she made a mental note to apologize to Penny later.

_(Elsewhere)_

"Come on B-B-Blake. Nice kitty, p-pretty kitty." Jaune stuttered frightfully from the corner of the living room as he hid behind Nora as she held a frying pan to shield herself.

"**DIE HUMANS!" ** Blake roared at the cowering teenagers as they flinched, keeping them trapped in the corner as she crouched towards the ground and prepared to pounce them as soon as the ginger put her weapon down.

"I hope Ren comes back soon with whatever he said he was getting." Nora whispered to Jaune as she readied the pan to block any of the cat's attacks.

"You're not going to hit her with that thing are you?" Jaune asked as he looked at Nora's choice of weapon, worried for his cat's health.

"No…but she doesn't know that."

"**Now I do fool!" **Blake meowed as she pounced at the two screaming friends.

"OH MY GOD!" they screamed as they dodged Blake's pounce and retreated up the stairs as fast as they possibly could.

Unfortunately for them, Blake utilized her almost unnatural speed and cut them off in the middle of the stairway, forcing them to retreat back down the stairs.

"**Target acquired!" **Blake growled as she chased Jaune and repeated her initial strategy.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH WHY DO YOU ALWAYS GO FOR THE BUTT!"

"**YOUR ASS IS MINE!" **Blake roared as she extended her claws and dug her fangs his right cheek.

"Don't worry I got her!" Nora shouted as she grabbed Blake and tried yank her off of Jaune, but instantly regretted it when Blake switched targets and dug her claws into Nora's chest.

"YEEOOOWWWCH! BAD TOUCH! BAD TOUCH! I NEED AN ADULT!" Nora screamed as she wrestled Blake on the floor.

As the two females tumbled over one another as they grappled each other and Jaune lied on the floor cradling his bleeding rump, the chaos destroying the living room was interrupted by the thunderous echo of the front door slamming open. Combat rolling dramatically into the room and aiming a tranquilizer pistol in Blake's direction was Ren, breathing heavily as if he sprinted to his house and back.

"Why can't you two just open the door like normal people? You're gonna break it." Jaune moaned miserably from the floor.

"Because you have no respect for the dramatics and I'm ashamed of you for it." Ren answered as he aimed his pistol at the growling cat clinging to his girl's chest.

"Those belong to me Fuzzy." Ren growled as he pulled the trigger.

Most cats would have been hit by the flying tranq and knocked out cold, but Blake had been dodging projectiles fired at her since she was a child, projectiles much more dangerous and quick than a syringe. She didn't need to be in her right state of mind to dodge it, for dodging was practically instinctual. With her highly trained reflexes beaten into her from years of harmful scenarios, Blake leaped off of Nora's chest and dodged the syringe as it flew past her cheek and pierced the skin of the teenager's chest.

"OOOWWW! REN WHAT THE FUuuuussssmmmlllliiii…" Nora garbled dizzily as her eyes dilated and drool poured out the side of her mouth.

"Uuummm…whoops. Nora, you okay?" Ren asked after mentally slapping himself for his atrocious aim.

Nora's only response was her unceremonious collapse as she fainted.

After watching the ginger pass out from the fresh drugs pumping through her body, Jaune, and interestingly Blake, looked at Ren with an expression that said, "Really dude?"

"Wow…you're really not good with that thing, are you?" Jaune asked despite knowing the answer.

"Shut up, you're a virgin." Ren insulted as he loaded another tranq into his pistol and aimed at the hissing feline.

To increase the chance of Ren missing his shot (if that was even possible), Blake channeled her Aura into her legs and leaped on to the stationary ceiling fan and took cover behind one of its blades, pulling its chain and sending it in motion as she landed.

"Damn…your cat has extraordinary legs." Ren complimented as Jaune got up from the floor and stood by him as they looked up towards the spinning cat.

"Think you can make the shot?" Jaune asked as Ren pointed his pistol at the fan.

"…no…" Ren shamefully admitted as he pulled the trigger.

Almost as if the goddess of fate despised the two boys, the tranquilizer was deflected by one of the spinning blades and sent flying wildly around the room as it ricocheted off of every surface it hit.

"Duck and cover!" Ren screamed as he and his half-naked friend dropped to the floor and covered their heads.

Unfortunately for Jaune, hugging the floor did little to protect their exposed backsides. The projectile finally ceased its sporadic flight, but not before lodging itself into Jaune's already damaged butt cheek.

"FOR THE LOVE OF MONTY WHAT DOES THE WORLD HAVE AGAINST MY ASiiimmmaaaattttoooo-"

Suffering the same fate as the maniacal ginger lying in a pool of her own drool, Jaune's eyes dilated as he succumbed to a drug induced coma.

"DAMN IT ALL!" Ren shouted furiously as he reloaded and aimed, determined to hit his target. His aim was undeniably terrible, but there was only one thing left conscious in this room beside himself, so he couldn't do any worse than what he has.

A full minute of spinning with the ceiling fan was beginning to take its toll on Blake's equilibrium as her secure position on its blade began to falter. Before Ren could attempt another shot at the destructive kitty, her balance finally gave in as she fell off the blade. In yet another astounding spurt of bad luck, she landed right on Ren's face as he pulled the trigger for the third time.

"YYYYEEEEEEOOOWWW!" Ren screamed as Blake delivered the same punishment to him she did the other foolish humans.

The pain of being mauled by the vicious kitty was a indeed a terrible experience that would mentally scar him for the rest of his days, but the pain of the needle entering his arm was a far more terrifying sensation.

"_Oh you've got to be freaking kidding me!" _Ren mentally screamed in anger at the just how unbelievably horrible his aim truly was.

His aim was so bad, he managed to actually shoot himself…

The last thought that went through Ren's head was his immense gratitude for whatever omnipotent power that was looking out for him that decided to leave his friends unconscious so that they didn't see how badly he screwed up.

It was a hard fought battle against the worst of odds, but as the final human fell beneath her feet, Blake withdrew her claws from the black-haired one's face and released a mighty roar of victory to alert the world of her victory. She successfully defeated her bi-pedal adversaries and avoided being drugged, thus proving her dominance over the trio of mentally inferior humans!

As Blake jumped off of Ren's face with her head held high and proud, her dizziness she developed from her ride finally settled in and sent the exhausted cat careening towards the floor unconscious.

It would be a cold day in hell before Jaune would try to bathe the bipolar cat again.

_(Beacon HQ)_

As much a Yang didn't want to admit that Neptune was right, Yang's lack of sleep was starting to get to her and affect how she normally functions. After they all agreed to return home and try reconnaissance another time, she tried to drive her precious bike BumbleBee, but she almost crashed when sleep almost consumed her mind. She had to swallow her pride and let Neptune driver her back on HER bike, and she didn't enjoy it one bit. It was the first time she had ever allowed someone other than Blake to use it, and she hoped it would be the last. She desperately needed sleep, but every time she lied down to get even a wink of rest, her head would always be filled with worry and concern for her best friend. Eventually she just gave up, but now it was taking its toll on her health.

"_Maybe a couple of Benadryls will do the trick." _Yang thought as she opened the door to the room she and Ruby shared.

As soon as she saw the position in which Ruby fell asleep, it took almost all of Yang's self control to keep from squealing from how she looked.

"_WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SO FLIPPIN' CUUUUTTTTTEEEEE!_" Yang mentally screamed as she willed herself to not glomp her sister.

The adorable Faunus girl fell asleep on her back with her arms and legs raised and bended, making her actually resemble a sleeping canine. If that wasn't cute enough, she was dreaming so heavily about chasing something that her arms and legs were waving back and forth constantly as she subconsciously ran on all fours. The small, but deep, sounds escaping her lips indicated that she was barking at her prey as she chased it.

Yang couldn't help it.

Her sisterly desires demanded satisfaction!

With no shame in her actions, Yang walked up to her sister, raised her hand, and gently scratched Ruby's left ear. The effect was almost instantaneous as Ruby's unharmed leg shook furiously in the air as her tongue fell out of her mouth out of pure pleasure.

It had been many years since Ruby allowed anyone to massage her ears like this. The last person she ever willingly allowed to do this to her was their deceased mother, and Ruby felt that it was a privilege she would only give their mother. That of course didn't stop Yang from sneaking them on her unsuspecting sister every now and then, but Ruby never let her have it without a fight.

There would probably be no sleep for Yang tonight.

She could happily do this all night when she had the chance.

_(Blake)_

"_Uuuuuggggghhhhh…my head…" _ Blake moaned as she slowly slipped back into the world of consciousness. (Déjà vu)

After regaining her senses, she wobbled up from the floor and shook her head rapidly in an attempt to wake herself up. When she was fully alert of her surroundings, she was shocked by the condition of the usually neat living room. The couch was lying on its back, its cushions were scattered throughout the room with some of its stuffing in the corner of the room, there were picture frames lying face down on the floor below their rightful place on the wall, and for some reason the room smelled like blood, sweat, and fear.

But that wasn't the weirdest part of the current scenery. For some reason, Jaune and his two friends (Rin and Dora was it?) were lying on the ground in the most uncomfortable positions with drool leaking out the side of their mouths.

Why was Jaune half naked?

What the hell happened last night?

She remembered being awoke from her nap by Jaune, then being carried out of the room towards the bath-

"Oh no…" Blake groaned embarrassed, piecing together what most likely happened and cursing her transformation to hell.

She better make sure that they were still alive.

"Jaune…Jaune. Are you alright?" she asked as she jumped on his pleasantly toned chest and pawed lightly at his face. Much to her shame, his beautiful face was covered in tiny scratched that she no doubt inflicted on him when he tried to bathe her.

Slowly, his sapphire eyes opened and focused on her gold ones, but she noticed three prevalent emotions communicated through them.

Confusion, Recognition, then unadulterated Terror.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Jaune shrieked as he leaped from his spot on the floor, scaring the hell out of the other occupants of the room.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH" Ren and Nora screamed as they jumped to their feet in surprise.

When they all saw the startled black cat on the ground staring at them confused, the three terrified teenagers simultaneously reacted in unison with one another.

"**AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"**

Screaming and tripping over one another in a panicked frenzy, the three college students sped up the stairs and into Jaune's faster than any living creature Blake had ever seen, leaving her confused and a little concerned for her action's last night.

No seriously, what the hell did she do to them last night?

**There you have it guys! I'm gonna go work on Wrath of Valkyrie now. Drop a review please, your wonderful feedback is what keeps me motivated! :-)**


	6. Chapter 6

**It's official; I am now officially a college kid. To be quite honest, it doesn't feel that much different from high school. Anyway, due to my college work, updates will be a tad bit slower, but don't worry! To reward you wonderful people for your patience, every now and then I'll update a piece of a mini-series I've been working on. They will be short little flashbacks that further explain relationships between characters, events, etc.**

**Also, if any of you like the story "Faunus in Heat", Kegi Sprinfield made a new fan art for it, so go give it a peek!**

**Let the story commence!**

**P.S: The last episode of RWBY…Team JNPR's got dem moves…**

As Blake rose up from the bed in a drowsy haze, she noticed the curious absence of Jaune's familiar warmth. At first she thought that he woke up early to get ready for school, but when she looked towards the clock, she instantly thought otherwise. It was 5:30 in the morning, far earlier than he would usually leave the comfort of his bed.

Her second thought concerning his whereabouts was the possibility that he went to the restroom, but Blake's perfect night-vision allowed her to see an alarming anomaly that immediately told her that something was wrong.

Crocea Mors, the dusty sword that was usually lying unattended in the corner of the room, was absolutely nowhere to be found.

That sword was almost taboo when it concerned Jaune, and Blake knew this well. Every time she saw him look in its direction, he would instantly shoot his head in the opposite direction and try to continue with whatever he was doing, not even allowing it to glanced at through his peripheral vision. During the very rare times that Jaune would hold his sword and gaze upon its beauty, Blake would smell the subtle smell of salt building in his eyes and she would notice the way his jaw aligned as he bit his quivering lip in an attempt to swallow the sobs that reverberated through his chest that desperately needed to be released.

Worried for her blonde friend, Blake rose on all fours and leaped from the bed towards the open door. Her ears twitched when she picked up a heart wrenching sound from downstairs. Quickening her pace, Blake silently sped down the hallway to the bottom of the stairs.

Her heart was pierced with a momentary burning pain as she looked at her friend.

With only the still screen of the T.V illuminating the living room, she saw Jaune on his knees with his family's sword cradled in his arms. Although he was desperately trying barricade his mouth, his sobs of despair clearly reverberated in Blake's hyper-sensitive ears.

Blake looked towards the screen to see what he was watching before he broke down. Paused on the screen was the image of a small, but awkward, family of three. The first member she took notice of was the central figure who had a woman and a small boy in an uncomfortable looking bear hug. He was a strikingly handsome, blonde spiky haired man with a very muscular build that Blake could see clearly, for the man wore no shirt. His cheek splitting smile complemented the mischievous glint in his emerald green eyes, but Blake could see that he was mindful of how much force he was putting in his hug, careful not to harm the precious treasures in his arms. The second person she observed was the amazingly beautiful woman glaring playfully at her husband. Her hair was just as dark as Blake's, if not darker, and her eyes were bluer than the summer sky and shone brighter than the sun itself, only magnifying her already astounding beauty. The final member of the family Blake instantly recognized as she looked at the child who was nuzzled in between his parents as he was held lovingly by his mother and his father happily grabbed them both. Jaune was indeed an adorable boy who without a doubt possessed the most attractive traits from both of his parents. He had inherited his father's golden hair, the only difference being that Jaune's looked combed and well kempt while his father's looked wild. He inherited most of his facial features from his mother, most notably her gorgeous sapphires, giving him a more feminine appearance than most boys, but it worked in his favor and only made him look more attractive, in Blake's opinion.

They looked like the happiest family in the world that almost brought a smile to Blake's face, but her lips were yanked into a quivering frown when she saw what was strapped securely on the father's back.

It was the same sword that was tightly locked in the boy's arms now.

It was the answer to Blake's question as to why Jaune couldn't maintain emotional stability when around the sword.

It belonged to his father, who Blake could easily deduce had died a very long time ago, and most likely his mother suffered the same fate.

It was his inheritance, and also his eternal reminder of what he had lost.

"_Oh Jaune…" _Blake thought woefully as she felt her eyes moisten, feeling nothing but absolute sympathy for the heartbroken boy.

She knew all too well what it was like to lose your parents…

Blake walked up to the form of the crying blonde who was completely unaware of the girl walking towards him. He became aware when he felt his arm being rubbed up against by the feline.

After quickly wiping the tears from his moist cheeks and clearing his throat, he said in strained voice, "I'm sorry Blake, I didn't mean to wake you up."

She said nothing as she leaped into his arms next to his sword. She usually wouldn't be caught dead doing what she was about to do, but at that moment she didn't care. She knew why she was about to completely embarrass herself, and she found no shame in it. For the first time ever in her entire life, she allowed her feline instincts to prevail over her natural reasoning with absolutely no resistance on her part.

She wanted to do whatever she could to comfort Jaune, because over the past week she did the one thing she swore to herself she wouldn't during her temporary stay.

She grew attached to the caring blonde..

Surprising Jaune by her alarming and unusual display of affection, Blake gently licked away the tears coating his cheeks, nuzzling her cheek against his as if to say, "I'm here for you". This was a new completely new experience for Jaune; being kissed so gingerly by the cat that always hissed at him whenever he tried to do the same, but he welcomed it as he set his sword aside and wrapped his arms around her. His sobs slowly subsided with each passing minute and the violent compressions of his chest eased into relaxed breathing.

As she ignored the taste of salt on her tongue, Blake was happy that she managed to alleviate some of his suffering, but Blake wasn't naïve. She knew that although her comfort was soothing for him, it wouldn't have the desired effects coming from an animal, and it hurt her to know that she couldn't comfort in him the way she desired.

Well…at least until she could talk to him "face-to-face"…

_(Elsewhere)_

"Ruuuuubyyyy. Ruuuuuuubyyyyyy. Wake up wake up. The doctor's gonna be hear any second." Yang happily whispered as she gently rocked her sleeping sister back and forth.

Her only response was a defiant moan from the bundle completely concealed by the white sheets of the bed.

"Oh don't be like that." Yang playfully scolded as she increased the force behind her shakes. They did nothing to wake the stubborn Faunus; she fell right back to sleep as she snored and lightly kicked her leg.

Deciding that the gentle method was proving to be futile, Yang resorted to more drastic measures as she brought her lips close to Ruby's left ear.

"Hey…Ruby…Sun just got through eating all of your cookies." She whispered while trying not to giggle.

"**I'LL RIP HIS TAIL OFF!" **Ruby roared monstrously as she threw her sheets off and growled ferociously in every direction as she stood on all fours.

She was brought back to her senses as soon as she heard Yang's obnoxious laughter.

"Yaaannnnggg…" Ruby growled as she refrained from biting the tempting flesh of her annoying sibling.

"Oh whatever Ruby, that was funny and you know it!" Yang said as she swallowed her chuckles, trying to regain control of herself.

"I am **so** gonna remember this." Ruby warned angrily as she regained common sense and her bestial instincts receded.

"Yeah sure whatever. Get down from the bed, you have a doctor's appointment." Yang said happily as she walked towards the door and waited for her sister to get dressed.

"Ahh man…" Ruby complained as she jumped off her bed and landed gracefully on the soft carpet floor.

Yang was impressed, and admittedly a little jealous, by how fast Ruby healed from wounds, a trait that most Faunus possessed. She didn't exactly know how, but Faunus had smaller Aura reserves than the common human, giving them more conscious control of how much they use and where they focus it. If she had been human, her body would have spent more of her Aura healing over a longer period of time, and with less precision. One could say that the Faunus were usually superior to humans when it came to Aura control and on a physical level. They were usually faster, more agile, stronger, sometimes possessed claws and/or fangs as a means of self defense, and possessed hyper advanced senses like their night-vision. The only thing that set them on an equal level with humans was their notorious "Achilles Heel"; young Faunus were often completely submissive to their animal instincts.

Yang could recall a time when she was trying everything she could to force her sister out of their room so that she could have a private talk with Blake, but Ruby tenaciously refused. At first, Yang tried to bribe the wolf Faunus with cookies, but it proved futile since Ruby already kept their refrigerator stocked full of them. She then tried to bribe her with money, but unlike her blonde counterpart, Ruby wasn't in the slightest bit greedy, and denied her offer. Yang exhausted just about every other option possible, but as she observed the twitching furry ears atop Ruby's head, she formulated a hypothesis. Eager to test out her theory, Yang dug around underneath her bed, where she kept seemingly useless items, and pulled out a tennis ball that she used to play tennis with Blake when she wasn't mentally buried in a book.

With absolutely no shame in her actions, she waved the green ball in front of Ruby to catch her attention and said in a voice usually reserved for a playful puppy, "YOU WANT DA BAWL?! YOU WANT DA BAWL WITTLE PUPPY?!"

Yang mentally danced in celebration as Ruby's eyes dilated and she immediately jumped off her bed on all fours and started barking excitedly. Ecstatic that her plan succeeded, Yang threw the ball out of the room and down the hallway at an angle so that it went as far as possible when it hit the walls. Ruby instantly gave chase to the bouncy toy, zipping out of the room and dodging very confused co-agents as they stared curiously at the girl. As soon as Ruby left the room, Yang slammed the door shut and locked it, chuckling mischievously as she soundproofed the room so that she could shield herself from the murderous verbal onslaught from her sister when she regained her reasoning.

"You're horrible." Blake said as she crossed her arms and glared at her best friend in disapproval.

"I know." Yang replied as she grinned shamelessly at her best friend.

"_Good times…" _Yang nostalgically thought as Ruby finished getting dressed and put on her trademark hood.

"Alright let's go." Ruby said grumpily as she followed her sister out of the room, annoyed that her sleep was disturbed and still angry at Yang for her cheap tactic to waking her up.

It didn't take long to navigate through HQ and arrive at the doctor's office, but it did take a while longer than normal because they were often greeted by their many acquaintances with their customary "good mornings" and the intermittent "congratulations" to Ruby for her promotion. Apparently saving a civil rights leader from the sudden and unexpected cold grasp of death earned Ruby much respect not just from the Council, but from almost every other agent in Beacon. Yang's heart swelled with pride as people stopped what they were doing and looked towards the sister's and breathed whispers like "Dude, that's her!" or "Holy crap, that's the girl who saved Maroon!"

Of course Ruby was feeling slightly uncomfortable by all of the unexpected attention and not as proud because of it, but that was just fine. Yang would be proud enough for the both of them.

After opening the door and checking in with the secretary at the desk in the waiting room, they walked down the office hallway to the room where they found the rabbit eared doctor at her desk, typing on her computer while taking casual sips from her coffee mug. As soon as she noticed the siblings open the door and enter her office, she smiled happily and politely said, "Hello Yang and Ruby."

"What's up Doc!" Yang said, imitating Bugs Bunny as she cheekily smiled at the doctor while making her horrendously horrible pun. Ruby face-palmed out of pure embarrassment from her sister's behavior and crappy joke, while Dr. Scarlatina honestly giggled at the tasteless, yet clever, joke Yang made.

If it had been any other doctor who was a rabbit Faunus, Yang would have never made the joke out of fear she would offend her and pass off as racist, but the sisters had known Dr. Scarlatina ever since they first joined Beacon as children, so Yang felt completely comfortable opening up to the doctor with a joke she knew that she wouldn't take the wrong way. That was why she was the only doctor Yang would go to; she was one of the very few individuals in Beacon that actually laughed at her jokes.

"How are you doing today?" Dr. Scalatina politely asked as she slid away from the computer on her wheel-chair and faced them.

"I was having a great morning, until Yang woke me up." Ruby said as she glared at her sister who was chuckling nervously.

Used to the common behavior between the two and having long accepted it as normality, she slid towards the patient's recliner and patted down on its cushiony surface while beckoning Ruby over with a hand gesture. Ruby silently obeyed as she sat down on it and pulled her black legging from her injured leg, already knowing the routine. The rest of the next five minutes were spent patiently waiting for the doctor to finish her work, which included gently elevating Ruby's leg to look closely at the now-healed wound and asking her to walk around the room for careful observation. As she finished writing her notes on her notepad, Dr. Scarlatina smiled happily at the duo and said, "It looks like you've made a complete recovery and you'll be ready to resume active duty whenever you please."

"Awesome! If I had to stay in that bed for one more freaking day, I was gonna go nuts!" Ruby exclaimed in relief as she leaped from the patients table.

"Why are you so eager to leave our room all of a sudden? Half the time I can't get you to leave." Yang asked curiously.

"Because I've been working on a secret project and I'm almost done! I would've finished sooner, but you wouldn't let me go to the workshop." Ruby answered as she extended her lip and angrily frowned at her sister.

"Your health comes first young lady." Yang said with finality in her voice as she mimicked Blake and crossed her arms disapprovingly, resembling a concerned mother scolding her child.

"Well, your leg is in great condition now, but try not to use your super-speed unless you have to okay? It could strain your freshly-healed muscles past their limits." Dr. Scalatina said as she rolled back to her computer and started typing on it again.

"Yes ma'am." Ruby said obediently, though slightly annoyed that she wouldn't be able to burn off the energy she built up during bed rest.

As soon as they turned towards the door to leave the doctor to her work, the sisters stopped in their tracks when the door was opened by someone else on the other side.

"Sun? What are you doing here?" Yang asked as the monkey Faunus walked through the door and looked towards all three of them. For some reason, he was holding a neatly folded letter in his right hand.

"I was sent here from the Council to give Ruby this. Sounded important…" Sun answered as he handed the letter to Ruby, who took it with confusion evident on her face.

"What now?" Ruby whispered as she broke the seal with her finger nail and pulled the piece of paper out of the folder.

"What does it say?" Yang asked, wondering what else they wanted to do with her baby sister.

Surprise was evident on Ruby's face as she looked towards the two blondes and said, "It says…I'm supposed to join you on your assignment…"

…

…

…

"What?" Yang asked.

_(Elsewhere)_

"And that's all for class today!" Bartholomew Oobleck said as he slammed his coffee cup down on his desk.

"YAHOOOOO!" Nora screamed in delight as she zoomed out of the classroom in an orange blur in speeds that put Oobleck to shame.

"_Well then…I feel old now…" _Oobleck thought shamefully as he watched his other students leave the classroom in a more orderly fashion than Nora.

Well…all except one student.

"Mr. Arc, could you stay for a few minutes? I would like to talk to you." he requested as he sat behind his desk, moving towers of paperwork aside so that his student would be able to see him.

"Yes sir…" Jaune moaned from the back of the class as he collected his books and notes.

For the past few days, Oobleck had been greatly worried for the goofy blonde. During the week, Jaune had seemed incredibly distracted and sleep deprived, and his grades were beginning to reflect on that. The boy had never been the best student in his class, Jaune would be the first to admit it, but he would always try his best to pay attention and succeed, and for that Oobleck grew fond of him. But lately, Jaune would always have a soulless gleam in his bloodshot eyes as he followed his teacher's movements, not at all fully processing the material presented to him. Oobleck could clearly tell that he was suffering from a case of insomnia; the boy had the darkest of rings surrounding his eyes. He didn't know why Jaune's health was taking such a drastically negative impact, but he wanted to try and help him in his time of need if he could.

After the rest of the students cleared out and Jaune sat drowsily in front of Oobleck, he initiated the conversation by folding his arms on the desk and asked, "Mr. Arc, are you okay? You don't look like you've been sleeping well at all."

"I'm fine sir, I've just been busy at work lately. Nothin' to worry about." Jaune lied as he tried to put on a mask of happiness and contempt, but was foiled by the bags under his eyes and his dizzy movements.

His answer didn't surprise in the slightest. Jaune was notorious for trying to solve his emotional problems on his own without accepting help he needed, as if he always had something to prove to himself. It was admirable, yet at the same time foolish.

"Mr. Arc, you've been working at that pizzeria for the past year, and your ludicrous hours of work never interfered with your ability to function during the day. I know there's something troubling you that isn't work related at all." Oobleck said, proving Jaune's lie to be false on many levels.

Jaune noticeably flinched as he racked his brain for an excuse more viable and believable than his job, but couldn't. The professor was simply to observative and intuitive to easily lie to. Slowly, Jaune's mask began to falter and his mouth subtly dropped into a frown, but Jaune forced it to rise again in an attempt to look convincing.

Oobleck sighed in disappointment as he rubbed his temples. Jaune's stubbornness was impervious to the words of a teacher he still barely knew. Any attempts on his part to get the blonde to confess his issues and open up would be futile. The matter was obviously a deeply personal one if it was this destructive to his health.

Greatly surprising Jaune in a gesture of assurance, Oobleck removed his glasses and abandoned them near his seat as he grabbed an unused chair and sat next to Jaune, gently placing his hand on his shoulder and meeting him eye-eye to further communicate his concern.

"Jaune," he said, using his first name in conversation for the first time ever, "I know that you don't know me well enough to comfortably speak with me about personal matters. I do not blame you in the slightest, but you are my student and I care for your wellbeing. So please, if something is wrong, talk to someone about it. I won't even ask you to talk to **me**, just talk to somebody, anybody, about whatever is bothering you. I'm not asking you this as a teacher; I'm asking you as a friend."

His words had the desired effect.

Jaune's face slowly distorted and his forced smile finally gave way as he looked down at his knees in woeful contemplation. Satisfied that he was at least thinking about what he said, Oobleck removed his hand from his shoulder and returned to his usual spot behind his desk.

"You're free to leave." he said as he put on his glasses.

Jaune rose from his and walked towards the door with his book-bag in hand. Before he left the classroom, he looked towards said, "Thank you Professor Oobleck…"

"You're welcome." He replied as he picked up his pen and began to do paperwork.

Immediately after his student closed the door behind him, Oobleck ceased his paperwork and put his pen aside. He reached into his pocket and pulled out his scroll, scrolling through his contacts as soon as he opened it. After tapping the name of the person he wished to speak to, he held the scroll at a reasonable distance so that the person on the other line could see him. It didn't take long for the other person to answer his scroll.

"**Hello Bartholomew. Did you need something?" **

"Yes. May I speak to you privately in your office?"

"**Can it wait until later? I'm investigating possible Order hideo-"**

"Ozpin, with all due respect, that needs to wait. This is about Jaune." Bart interrupted with a sharpened voice, communicating the importance of his request.

…

…

…

"**Please come at your earliest convenience…" **Ozpin replied, clearing his desk of any and all work in preparation of giving Bart his full attention.

_(Jaune)_

After he left the concerned professor to his work and exited the building,, Jaune checked his scroll to see what time it was. It was 12:30, which meant that he had exactly two hours before he should start heading to work. His first thought was to find Ren or Nora, but they sent him a text message saying that they were going on a short date before work and that they'll see him soon. With nothing important to do, Jaune lazily walked around campus, eager to find anything to keep his mind off his parents. Luck was finally on his side as he turned his head towards the gym, knowing that a distraction he was hoping for was most likely inside beating up a defenseless punching bag.

To Jaune's great surprise, there weren't nearly as much people in the gym as he first anticipated. Jaune could only see about four other people inside and they were distanced considerably from one another, but that simply made it easier for Jaune to find who he was looking for. He was in the corner of the large room, dressed in a tank top and sports shorts while benching hefty looking weights.

The physically fit man placed the weights back on the rest above his head as he noticed his blonde haired friend walk towards him. "What's up Jauney boy?" he greeted happily as sat back up and smiled at the blonde with a sweat drenched face.

"Hey Cardin." Jaune replied as he took a seat on one of the chairs lined up against the wall next to the weights.

"So what are you doing here?" Cardin asked after swiping his face with a nearby towel.

"I'm just…walking around…killing time until work starts." Jaune replied as he dozed off into a yawn.

Cardin looked at him with subtle concern.

"Are you okay? You haven't been yourself lately." He asked, already knowing that Jaune would lie and say he was fine, but it never hurt to ask.

"Yeah…just a little tired. I haven't been sleeping well." Jaune replied as he rubbed his bloodshot eyes.

"You don't say?" Cardin sarcastically remarked, but still curious as to why Jaune had been sleeping terribly as of late.

Had his boss been making him work overtime again? It's not like he hadn't always worked his ass off during the week, but he never looked **this **horrible before. The poor guy could barely finish a sentence without being interrupted by his own yawns, and he looked like he was about to fall out of his seat unconscious. There was no way he would be able to work like this, or at least not work efficiently.

Cardin rose up from his spot on the bench and reached into his back pack, deciding to lend Jaune a helping hand.

"Here, you're gonna need it." Cardin said as he handed the exhausted boy a potent energy drink.

"Umm…thanks…" Jaune said, somewhat surprised by his buff friend's generosity.

Jaune popped open the top of the can and downed it in less than ten seconds. He felt the effects immediately; it felt as if the sugar and caffeine literally washed away the weight of his eyelids and the drowsiness consuming his consciousness.

"Wow…that really helped." Jaune said amazed as he got up and tossed the empty can into a nearby trash can. As soon as he turned around to walk back to his seat, his chest was hit by a pair of blue boxing gloves, of which he caught in surprise.

"Good, now let's go waste time. You look like you need a distraction." Cardin said as he put on his own red gloves and walked towards the boxing room.

"_You have no idea…" _Jaune thought miserably as he followed him.

It was funny how friendships were. Some friendships originate from mutual feelings of understanding and acceptance, some friendships are born from competitive rivalries that evolve into partnerships, but it is very rare when a friendship starts from a bitter conflict between two enemies. And that was exactly where Jaune's and Cardin's friendship started. In high school, they would have never been seen together unless they were fighting, but now here they were in college, heading towards the ring for a friendly sparring match.

"_Who'd have thought…" _Jaune thought as he recalled the day that Cardin went from being a bully that made his life a living hell, to a kind and supportive companion that always had his back.

"_Get him!" Cardin roared to his three friends as they chased the blonde weakling through the trees and shrubbery._

"_Oh crap oh crap oh crap oh crap of crap!" Jaune chanted as he sprinted through the forest as if the devil was at his heels._

_The day had instantly soured when the final bell rang through the school. Jaune was happy to get home and finish his homework so that he could spend the weekend at Ren's and Nora's house, but his happy mood was instantly shattered when he walked out of the double doors and into the back of the school. For the third time today, Cardin Winchester was yanking on Velvet's ears with painful force while his three cronies taunted her. Every time he had to watch him get away with his abusive treatment of his Faunus acquaintance, his anger would spike and his fists would clench in restrained fury. He had stood up to the atrocious bully on a few occasions before, attempting to shift their attention away from the poor girl so that she could escape, but every time he did, he was beaten into the ground and sometimes left in the school dumpster. One would think that he had grown used to these horrendous and inhumane acts from Cardin, but this time…Jaune's eye's were blinded by a raging inferno of hatred and spite. Whether he knew it or not, Cardin had dislocated the ear he was carelessly tugging against, sending Velvet into an unbearable amount of pain. She sobbed and tugged against his solid grip as she desperately tried to run away, but all she succeeded in doing was dislocating the appendage further._

_The mere sight of the tears pouring from the Faunus's eyes was enough for Jaune to finally snap._

_Sprinting in a mad dash towards the abusive brute, Jaune leaped towards Cardin, reared his fist back, and slammed his knuckles into his right eye with as much force as his skinny muscles could possibly create._

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!" Cardin roared in pain as he released the Faunus and shot his hands to his face to shield his face. The other three bullies could only stare shocked at the growling blonde who was usually to weak to make a dent on their leader. _

_As his momentary burst of adrenaline and rage subsided, Jaune's common sense returned to him as he looked at the expressions of those around him. Cardin looked absolutely pissed as he glared murderously at him with a new black eye, his three friends smiled evilly at him as they cracked their knuckles, and Velvet stared at him through teary eyes as she looked at him appreciatively._

"_Oooooohhhhhhhhh crap…" Jaune thought as he realized the fresh hell that awaited him._

"_HOLD HIM DOWN!" Cardin growled as he shot up from the ground, having lost all interest in the Faunus girl and ready to beat the stupid blonde within an inch of his life._

_And so the chase began, first through the streets of the city, then through the junkyard, and now through the forest._

_So here he was; running through the bushes and around the trees as he forced the screaming muscles of his legs to continue their work so that he could live to use them another day._

_After bursting through another collection of shrubs, Jaune ran undeterred across a rail of train tracks that continued through the forest, making sure no to get his feet stuck in the gaps in between. The four bullies weren't far behind him, for as soon as he made it across the tracks, they also sprinted through the bushes with Cardin in the lead. Cardin knew that it was only a matter of time before Jaune finally lost his energy and slowed down, so his inevitable beat down was painfully imminent. He just needed to keep chasing him until then._

_Unfortunately for Cardin, his karma finally caught up to him as he carelessly sprinted across the train tracks. Right in the middle of the train tracks, his sprint was painfully cut short as his foot became wedged and stuck in the rails. _

"_SON OF A BITCH!" Cardin screamed painfully as he tried to pull his newly-sprained ankle from the gap in the tracks._

"_Cardin, are you okay?" a bullies asked concerned as he and his other two friends crouched down and tried to help him pull his foot out._

"_Yeah…I'm fine…just a sprain…" Cardin breathed as he futilely pulled at his foot._

_And then the most horrifying sound erupted next to them…_

_**DING DING DING DING DING DING DING**_

_Terror instantly seized a burning grip of Cardin's heart._

_All four of their pairs of eyes widened to unbelievable lengths as their heads shot towards the far distance._

_Cardin's heart skipped a beat when he saw the smoking locomotive in the horizon._

"_OH MY GOD!" Cardin screamed as his efforts to get free immediately tripled._

_The four bullies panicked as they tried their absolute hardest to get Cardin free, but his foot was simply too stuck to be simply pulled._

_Not without a lubricant at least…_

_Seeing that there was no conceivable way to free Cardin in time, two of the bullies grimly frowned at him and whispered, "I'm sorry…", before rising up and started running away._

"_DOVE! LARK! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Cardin screamed at his two "friends"._

_They didn't even give him a second look, they just continued their mad dash back into the forest so that they didn't have to see the gruesome death that was about to occur._

_Only Russel stayed, trying desperately and futilely to free his doomed friend._

_And just like that, the proud and condescending nature that was usually prevalent in Cardin was instantly destroyed and replaced by pure fear and unadulterated sorrow._

"_HHHHHHHHHHHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPPP! __**HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPP!**__"Carding screamed and sobbed uncontrollably as he and Russel pulled his leg with all of their collective might, terrified that the sound of the train's horn was growing even louder and more frequent._

_This was it…_

_He was finally being punished for his massive amount of misdeeds…_

_Cardin Winchester was going to die…_

_Or at least he thought he was…_

_Instantly swooping in from the bushes he retreated in to and completely baffling the two bullies, Jaune jumped to Russel's side and hurriedly assisted in pulling Cardin's leg._

_The train was twenty seconds away from a bloody collision, and its deafening horn rattled their ears and hearts as it came closer._

_And then in a stroke of genius, Jaune threw his backpack off and shoved his hand inside the front pocket to retrieve the only thing that could save Cardin's life._

_A bottle of rose scented lotion._

_After ripping off the cap, Jaune began to pour every single drop possible onto Cardin's foot while screaming frantically at Russel to continue in his efforts to free his enemy from the painful grasp of the rattling train tracks. Slowly, Cardin's leg finally began to slide out of the death trap, but the train was mere seconds from colliding with the trio._

_5…_

_4…_

"_COOOOOOMMMMMMMEEEEEE OOOOOOONNNNNNN!" Jaune screamed at the top of his lungs as he pulled on Cardin's foot while Russel pulled from his leg._

_3…_

_2…_

"_AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Cardin roared in mind numbing pain as his ankle finally slid out. Russel and Cardin collapsed safely out of the way of the steel behemoth barreling towards them._

_Unfortuneately, Jaune was still on the tracks…_

_1…_

"_JAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNEEEEEEEEE!" Cardin and Russel screamed in horror as the boy tried to leap out of the way._

_0…_

"_**NNNNNNNNNOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" **__Cardin screamed as the train slammed into the bloodied blonde_

_(Present)_

That day had almost ended with the horrifically bloody death of Cardin, but he managed to survive with a minor injury. Cardin's ankle literally broke free when Jaune and Russel freed him, but Jaune suffered much worse injuries in his attempt to save the ex-bully's life. He didn't have enough time to completely jump out of the way of the train; it slammed destructively into the right side of his body, much to Cardin's deep regret. Cardin left the forest with a busted foot, but the heroic blonde, who Cardin felt had every right to leave him to be punished for his actions against him, left the forest in an ambulance with a broken right arm, an unnaturally bent leg, and head injury that would leave him comatose for more than two weeks.

Cardin never forgot the second chance that Jaune almost died giving him. Ever since that near-death experience, he vowed to be a better person so that he could atone for his actions. He started by helping Jaune when he finally awoke from his coma. It had taken a lengthy amount of time for Jaune to truly forgive him, even longer for Ren, Nora, and Velvet, but after months of apologies and selfless action he finally earned their forgiveness. They had even forgiven Russel after a bit of convincing from Cardin. Ever since then, Cardin had always helped out the group of friends in any way possible, eternally grateful for his rescue and redemption.

Now as the two teenage boys threw their fists at one another, their intent was to now assist, rather than harm, an occurrence that years ago most would have laughed at the mere thought.

"You're getting a bit sloppy there Jauney boy!" Cardin playfully taunted as he dodged Jaune's gloved punch and swiftly countered with his own, landing a quick and almost harmless strike on Jaune's right cheek.

"I'm sorry I don't spend every waking moment getting practice by beating the holy hell out of random crap like you do!" Jaune sarcastically replied as he quick stepped towards Cardin and struck him in his strongly toned abdomen.

A strange friendship indeed…

_(Elsewhere)_

"Hello Bart." Ozpin greeted from his seat behind his desk as he interlocked his hands and placed them in front of him.

"Oz…" Oobleck said, reciprocating the greeting and taking a seat in front of the grey-haired man. He immediately took notice of the fact that Ozpin's desk, which was usually littered with various types of paperwork, was wiped clean of any and all distractions. The only items that lied on the slab of waxed mahogany were the two cups of steaming coffee in front of the two men on opposing sides of the desk.

"You said that you needed to talk to me about Jaune. Is something wrong?" Ozpin asked after taking a much needed sip from his coffee mug.

"Yes, I'm afraid. He seems to be suffering from a case of insomnia." Oobleck answered solemnly, still greatly worried for the boy.

Ozpin eye brow rose in skeptical indication and asked, "That's odd. The boy usually sleeps so deeply I've had to pour ice water on him in the past. Is his job interfering with his sleep?" he asked.

"He has had that job for almost a full year, and not once has it interfered with his sleeping schedule. I'm afraid his lack of sleep stems from a personal issue." Oobleck replied.

"I assume you tried to speak with him." Ozpin said as he pulled a canister of coffee from under his desk and refilled his cup.

"Indeed…but I could tell that he wouldn't speak about it with someone he barely knew." Oobleck said as his head slowly dipped towards the ground. "He fell asleep briefly in my class and whimpered "dad" before his friend Nora woke him up…"

"I see…" Ozpin dejectedly whispered as he mimicked Oobleck and bowed his head.

It was painfully obvious what was wrong with Jaune. If what Oobleck said was true, then Jaune was suffering a crippling depression, not at all unlike what he experienced when his parents had died years ago. Ozpin would never forget the night when he walked into his teammate's home, only to find two bloodied corpses of his close friends, and a small boy whimpering and sobbing into the cold body of his father. Ozpin had to gently knock the poor child unconscious so that he would release his iron grip from the body, and even after he was unconscious he had to pry his small fingers off of it. In a way, Jaune had never truly healed from the psychological damage he suffered that night, and today was clear proof of that. Even three years later after hundreds of hours spent in therapy, the poor boy would wake up in night terrors. Ozpin had hoped that he would eventually make a full recovery, but Jaune had apparently not achieved that yet.

"Why must we hide such an integral part of his life from him like this…" Oobleck asked as he gently pushed his barely touched coffee mug away, not at all in the mood for the decaffeinated liquid.

It was a question Ozpin asked himself every day, despite already knowing the answer. As much as he would have liked to end the years of secrecy and ignorance for his beloved god-son, he couldn't bear the thought of involving him. Beacon already had moral issues with involving children in this destructive war, but there simply weren't enough people on their side to be exceptional. Ozpin knew this and had long accepted it, but the mere thought of sending his best friend's only child into harm's way left him with a stinging pain in his chest.

Ozpin lost a brother that night, and Jaune lost both his parents. He would be damned if he would allow this war to steal anything more from the distraught teenager.

"You know as well as I do that we can't involve him in this war. It wouldn't be fair to him." Ozpin answered.

"Then why do we keep something as important and dangerous as Crocea Mors with him?" Oobleck asked.

…

…

…

…

"Because it rightfully belongs to him." Ozpin said as he looked his old friend in the eye, understanding his concern for Jaune.

Oobleck only sighed woefully, knowing the truth behind Ozpin's reply and understanding why he had let Jaune keep it. He didn't like it, but he accepted it none the less.

A full minute of silence passed before Oobleck rose from his seat and asked, "Please talk to him soon. This is an issue that a boy needs his father's help with."

Ozpin almost flinched in response to Bart's plea.

"_If only I __**could**__give him that…" _ Ozpin sadly thought.

"I will. Thank you for bringing this to my attention." Ozpin said gratefully.

"You're welcome…" Oobleck said before taking his leave and gently closing the door behind him.

Ozpin would have liked to continue his work and keep himself busy until it was time to return home to his wife, but the conversation with Bart had completely ruined his motivation to work. He opened his desk cabinet, but instead of reaching for the folder full of files on the Order, he instead reached for the small picture frame he kept in the back.

He looked upon the picture of the once-happy family of three as a lone tear slid down his cheek and landed on the floor.

"_You left him too soon…" _Ozpin thought as he looked directly at the two adults in the picture, and did everything he could to not gaze upon the innocent smile his god-son used to wear.

_(Jaune)_

"Jaune, we need a large pepperoni to go!" Nora said from her spot behind the cash register.

"Got it!" Jaune replied as he took out the last pizza he prepared out of the oven and began making another.

Much to Jaune's relief, the pizzeria wasn't nearly as packed as it usually was on a Friday. He could take his time as he cooked the various types of pizzas and breadsticks, without the need to rush to satisfy a large growing number of hungry people, which was good because he often burned himself when rushed. He usually hated working on Fridays, even when they were less busy than usual, but tonight was soothingly relaxing, for his boss left them to themselves to tend to private matters.

Jaune, Ren, and Nora never really liked their boss; he was always screaming orders at them as they worked like they always needed to be reprimanded for everything they did and always threatening docked pay if they made a mistake. Whenever he was in an extremely bad mood, he would sometimes keep them overtime with little to no extra pay.

So the combination of the boss's absence and the low number of customers left the three teenagers with some much deserved breathing room, and they intended to enjoy it as they finished the last of their duties.

"_Aaaannnndddd…done." _ As he boxed the last pizza for the night and placed it on the counter for the customer to retrieve and leave.

"Do you need help with the dishes Ren?" Jaune asked as he looked towards his friend who was speedily scrubbing plates and cups.

"No thanks, you can go sit down and cool down. I know you get hot from the oven." Ren replied caringly, not once taking his eyes off of the dishes he was cleaning.

"Alright, thanks." Jaune said gratefully as he untied his cooking apron and wiped the small beads of sweat coating his forehead.

"Yo Jauney, can you go let the last customer over there know that were about to close in ten minutes?" Nora asked as she counted the money in the cash register and counted her rather generous tips.

"Ok." Jaune replied as walked towards the freshly cleaned tables and out of the kitchen.

Just as Nora said, almost all of the tables were completely vacant, save for one two-seater in the darkest corner of the room. Quietly sitting in the corner of the room while nibbling on a single piece of pizza and reading a black book, was a hooded figure. Jaune couldn't tell if the person was a male or a female, for the figure's clothes were extremely baggy, as if they were way too large for the person. The hoody that concealed the figures head was a large black pull-over with pockets sewn into the front for warmth, and the blue jeans he/she wore were securely wrapped around the waist of the figure with a long black belt, a much needed accessory for the overly large pants. The only clothes that seemed to somewhat fit the figure were the old sneakers that he/she was wearing, and even they looked a bit large for the person.

Now that Jaune thought about it, the clothes did look oddly familiar, but he quickly brushed the thoughts aside to fulfil Nora's request.

After walking up to the androgynous figure and gently tapping his/her shoulder to gain attention, Jaune said, "We're about to close the shop in ten minutes; just thought you should know."

The figure turned its head towards the blonde and responded in a clearly feminine voice, "Oh, alright. Thank you for letting me know."

Jaune's eyes almost shot out of his skull in pure surprise as the revealed woman rose her head towards him, allowing the over-head lights to illuminate her face and leading Jaune to instantly recognize the girl.

"You?!" Jaune shouted, shocked that he had encountered her again.

"Oh, hello there." Blake replied as she closed the book in her hands.

Jaune almost swore he saw a mischievous glint in her ocular orbs of gold as she subtly smiled at him.

**Thanks for reading! Any feedback is immensely helpful and uplifting! :-)**


End file.
